Research and Development - Fire Emblem Fates
by Spiner909
Summary: Corrin's army struggles to adapt to their unknown enemy. Thematically inspired by the XCOM games, but not a crossover. Contains Revelation spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

I love the themes of XCOM. For those unfamiliar, it's a strategy game where you lead a force to defend Earth against alien invaders. Not only do you have to fight on the tactics front (the individual battles) but you have to fight the strategy front too. Reverse engineering alien technology, autopsying the powerful invaders, learning how they fight...I love it! So, I decided to turn idle daydreams about two of my favorite games into something greater.

Note that this is not intended to be a fully-fleshed out story. Reading this is like...opening a new book halfway through and reading a few pages.

Revelation spoiler warning.

* * *

I make my way to Nyx's laboratory, a sturdy building of stone and dark wood, isolated in the northwest corner of the castle. Nyx doesn't really own the building, but she's in there so often that most of us have taken to considering it hers. Cherry trees, rosemary bushes, sunflowers and other plants line the path to the door. An odd assortment, especially considering the strange and occult happenings within the building they adorn, but Mozume claims it helps cover up the smells. The two guards salute as I approach, opening the door for me. "I'm going to have a talk with Nyx," I say to one. "Alert me before you allow anyone else inside." The two guards give their acknowledgment and I step inside.

The laboratory is a rather large building, yet always manages to feel smaller on the inside. Usually buzzing with activity and experimentation, the ground floor is quiet today. Dozens of heavy wooden tables divide the floor into several rows. The objects resting on top of the tables are ever changing, artifacts of partially complete spellcrafting and potion brewing. The walls are lined with cabinets and counters and racks to store all manner of things. Books, ink, ingredients, bones, scrolls, staves, pots and knives. The job of taking stock of the laboratory's equipment is among the most bemoaned of assignments, dreadfully tedious and unfortunately, necessary.

Thankfully, I'm not here to take stock today. I descend the hewn stone stairs into the laboratory's basement. The basement is smaller than the ground floor, more specialized in its use. Today, the basement is dominated by the presence of a large stone slab in the center of the room, a very old corpse atop it. Surprisingly, it does not smell.

Unlike the floor above, the basement is populated. A short figure in black clothes slowly circles the stone slab, arms folded. "Hello, Nyx," I greet, waving at the small 'child' in dark robes. "How has your investigation gone?"

"Prince Corrin," she replies, bowing politely. "I have yet to determine the method that these wights use to attain invisibility, but I'm ready to offer my findings in other areas. Shall I begin?" I quickly check around the laboratory. Nyx has no assistants-I am unsure if she doesn't want them or if nobody has yet to meet her standards-and the only other people around are the two guards at the front entrance.

"Go ahead."

She clears her throat. "First, regarding the equipment of the wight-it is hundreds of years old, at the least, and it is undoubtedly a Nohrian style-see the heavy plate mail on the table there." Nyx points towards an assorted arrangement of disassembled armor strewn across a heavy wooden table. A rusty platebody, badly dented, a frayed set of hard leather boots and gloves, and a cracked helmet. A large, broken greatsword rests along the table, its poor condition and dulled edge reflecting the age of its owner. Its most obvious damage is more modern, however-it was cut in half yesterday when the corpse puppet tried to block Charlotte's tremendous axeblow.

"Note the sigil on the platebody and helmet," Nyx says. A black moon over rolling waves of water is painted on the armor, cracked and faded. "Compare it with the one in this book." Nyx points to an open book on an adjacent table. I step over and check the title of the book- _Noble Houses of Nohr_. I glance at her curiously. "Borrowed it from the records hall," she shrugs.

Sure enough, on the open page is displayed the same symbol on the ancient armor. "House Nersten," I read aloud. "A minor nobility located on the southeastern coast of Nohr. Their symbol, a black moon above rough seas, symbolized their affinity with the ocean, particularly that of nighttime naval combat. The Nersten line died out when their last son, Augustus, died without an heir in 117 of the Third Age. That was almost three hundred years ago!" I step back from the book and turn to Nyx.

"Consider that this wight was the _leader_ of the group sent against us. The abyssal condition of its equipment is shared with most of the other items we recovered from the battlefield. I suspect that our enemy considered this group of wights disposable, and dispatched them without expecting them to return." Nyx places her hands on her hips and shakes her head. "Necromancers aren't known for their compassion, but to just _throw away_ two dozen wights...that's a significant amount of magical energy invested."

"That's unusual, then? Do you think all the enemies we fight will be in such poor condition?"

"There's nothing particularly unusual about the corpse itself. It's simply ancient and has not been maintained. But the spell binding it..." Nyx trails off, gathering her thoughts. "Necromancy is a life spell...or rather, an unlife spell," she mutters amusedly. "A life spell draws on the energy of the caster, as opposed to the energy contained in a grimoire or scroll. It will not diminish easily, and since living beings regenerate, it can be sustained for a long time. Individual wights tend to be rather weak, so necromancers compensate by using large swarms of them."

"Even if the individual energy drain is weak, huge numbers of undead will exhaust a necromancer, right?" I don't ask how many wights it would take to exhaust Anankos-I'm terrified of the answer and I doubt Nyx can reasonably guess.

Nyx nods. "Necromancers use a variety of ways to extend their lifespan. Many of which are...morally dubious, to say the least. But in this case, our opponent has used a very simple solution-conduit wights. A magical 'chain of command', so to speak, to delegate the energy costs of the necromancy spell."

Nyx clears her throat. "A necromancer can pour an exceptional amount of energy into a single wight, empowering it, and making it serve as a 'conduit' for other wights. Nearby basic wights will draw energy from the _conduit_ instead of the necromancer. The obvious military application of this is to have the conduit wights serve as lieutenants and captains in an army. This wight," she gestures towards the corpse on the stone slab in the center of the room, "is one such example."

I think for a moment. "Wouldn't the overall energy drain be the same, though? It's still all ultimately drawing from the necromancer, right?"

"It's...more complicated than the basic explanation I gave," Nyx frowns. "Allow me to elaborate further. A conduit wight is not without its downsides. The 'lives' of the basic wights become tied to the conduit, rather than the necromancer. If the conduit is destroyed, all of the basic wights will be unable to receive more energy, becoming much weaker or becoming unable to sustain the necromancy spell. Furthermore, conduits are given a degree of autonomy- they can gather energy on their own, regenerating their own life force. This allows conduits to reduce the overall energy drain on their necromancer. The greatest problem with conduits is that they tend to be inefficient, energy-wise. Only powerful, experienced mages can make efficient conduits." Nyx's eyes leave mine and she stares at the floor for a while.

Nyx shifts on her feet and dusts off her leggings. "Conduits must also be given intelligence," she resumes. "A commander must be able to rationalize and process decisions, so they can think...to varying degrees." Nyx pauses, expecting me to ask a question.

I oblige. "So, if conduits have autonomy and intelligence...would that mean they could break free of their master's control?"

"...possibly. It has happened before," Nyx sighs softly, looking me straight in the eyes. "Prince Corrin. Understand that the odds of this are very low. A good necromancer knows just how much control to give to her conduits. If they struggle against her, she will overwhelm them. Consider the fact that our opponent likely has dozens, if not _hundreds_ , of conduits. Combined with the fact that these ancient wights have almost certainly lost any sense of self by now and the odds of wrestling free from control are astronomically low."

I rub my chin, considering this information. "So if a newly created wight was from a very strong willed individual, those would be the best circumstances for breaking free?"

Nyx's eyes suddenly grow much more serious. "Prince Corrin. I know that you value my advice. Please listen to me fully and know that I do not say this out of malice, but pragmatism."

I swallow and look at Nyx solemnly. I'm afraid that I already know what's coming next.

"If a _human_ necromancer had recently enslaved a strong willed individual...yes, there is a decent chance they could break free, with encouragement and help. In the case of our inhuman opponent...that is impossible. Perhaps there is a chance, but I _strongly_ advise you do not gamble on it. At best, the wight may be able to resist some of their controls, slowing down the reaction speed or weakening their blows. Do _not_ try to free enemy conduits. I have no doubts that they will be capable of faking resistance, luring you into a false sense of confidence. On top of that, it's very possible to disguise the conduit wight from the untrained eye. You might be wasting your breath on a basic wight in elaborate armor."

I've never seen such powerful conviction in Nyx's eyes.

"...you're speaking from experience, aren't you?" I ask softly.

Nyx looks at the floor. She does not speak for nearly a minute. "...I've been in a similar situation. Don't make my mistakes, Prince Corrin."

I nod. "I think I always knew it was a vain hope." I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "I understand, Nyx. I won't do anything reckless, I promise. And if the time comes...I will not hold back."

Nyx sighs softly. "Thank you, Prince Corrin, that is reassuring."

"Was there anything else?" I ask.

"Yes. I still do not understand why this wight is still intact."

"What do you mean?"

"That was poorly worded, apologies. It is not unusual that the wight left a corpse. It is _very_ unusual that every other wight we have fought so far has disintegrated into purple dust. Unfortunately, I have no way to determine why that is the case. At least, not from this corpse, which has no magical energy remaining."

"...I think I know where you're going with this," I nod.

"I believe that a complete understanding of the spell that animates these corpses will vastly improve our ability to fight them. I also believe that I have learned all I can from this corpse, at least for the time being. In order to progress...I must ask something very dangerous of you."

I nod, signaling her to continue.

"I need to study one of these wights while they are still 'alive'."

A smile of relief crosses my face. "Is that it? Shouldn't be a problem," I take the opportunity to stretch out my arms a bit, careful not to knock over any of Nyx's lab equipment. I focus energy into my hand and turn my fingers into razor-sharp dragon talons. "These things can't bleed out, right? How delicate do I need to be?"

Nyx tsks amusedly. "I think for a moment, I forgot who I was speaking to. No, they cannot bleed. Restrain it however you need. I would advise breaking the limbs. The body itself is unimportant- it is the magic I need to examine. And corpses hold no magic."

"Hmm, actually, slight issue. I don't think we can take a wight to the castle. Not through a whirlpool, anyway."

"Indeed. We shouldn't need to, however. I'd like to request that I accompany you in the next skirmish. I won't require much in the way of additional equipment. Once you've subdued a wight, simply bring it to me and I'll conduct the necessary experiments in the field."

"Alright. Depending on the circumstances, I might have to fly us to a safer location. And I'll either guard you myself, or assign someone else."

"Very good, Prince Corrin. With that, I have nothing else to report today."

"Understood. Good work, Nyx. I'll let you know the-" Suddenly, one of the guards stationed outside the laboratory bursts in.

''Sir! I just received a message for you from Prince Takumi! He says he was forced to abandon his hunting trip when he was ambushed by invisible soldiers!"

"What!? Is he alright?" Takumi has barely finished healing from that arrow in his shoulder, and the idiot goes on a hunting trip?

"He has only minor injuries, milord. He wanted me to inform you that he wants to rally a force to dispatch the ambushers once the healers have tended to his wounds."

I breathe out softly. Anankos wouldn't be content raiding defenseless villages for long. It was only a matter of time until his wights managed to find their way to the castle. At least Takumi didn't get hurt too badly. "Looks like you've got your chance earlier than expected, Nyx. How long do you need to prepare?"

"Less than ten minutes."

"Perfect," I say, silently singing praises for Nyx's competence and preparedness. "I'm going to go rally our response force, then." I turn and begin to ascend the stairs two at a time. The guard quickly hops out of the way, following me up the stairs.

"Where is Takumi now?" I ask.

"He is in a tent just near the southeastern gate. His retainers are both standing guard nearby," the guard replies.

"Understood, good work. I assume they've already volunteered to respond?"

"Yes sir, they have."

"Right. I'll head to the barracks and rally the rest. You go help Nyx with anything she needs and then bring her to the southeastern gate."

"Understood!" he salutes and heads back inside.

I shift more power into my legs, feeling the muscles strengthen and grow larger. Unveiling my wings, I turn and face the guardtower built into the wall next to the laboratory. "Let's go!" I push off the ground with great force, launching myself airborne. With a few powerful flaps of my wings, I bring myself to the top of the wall, shifting power into my arms to easily hoist myself up. From there, I jump again and perch on top of the guard tower, now nearly four stories off the ground. From my vantage point, I can see the commotion that is unfolding. Soldiers are running to and fro, many going to the armory or hospital. Even at this great distance, I can still faintly make out the distinct blue ponytail of Oboro on the opposite side of the castle, keeping watch outside a tent. No doubt she is itching for some revenge against those who dared to attack Takumi.

I push off the guardtower and, with a series of empowered jumps and gliding from the rooftops of castle buildings, I easily make my way to the barracks in record time. If I were still in my childhood castle, I'd face some serious punishment for damaging the roofs of buildings with poorly executed leaps. But I'm no longer a boy that can't control his powers. Besides, this is _my_ castle.

...

I expect getting Takumi to stop hunting alone will be more difficult than subduing one of Anankos' puppet corpses.

* * *

Part 2 to follow soon! This is only going to be two, maybe three parts.

This is my first story! Let me know what you think!

Listening to XCOM 2's squad loadout music gave me an adrenaline rush as I edited the finishing touches.


	2. Chapter 2

Time for Chapter 2, and it's almost triple the length of Chapter 1!

On top of that, Chapter 3 should be coming out quite soon. I hope you enjoy!

If you want some music to listen to when the fight begins, I recommend:

[XCOM 2 OST - Ambush]

* * *

Leaves and twigs noisily crunch beneath five pairs of boots as we make our way to the spot Takumi was ambushed. Oboro, Niles, Felicia, Nyx and myself compose the rear group. Benny, Hinata, Sakura, and Silas walk a dozen or so paces in front us. Kaze was with them a few minutes ago, but the green-haired ninja went ahead on his own to scout. Hinata has his arms crossed over his head, loudly boasting of his latest accomplishments to Sakura, to which she is too polite to ignore. Benny and Silas seem to be talking about something, but I can't make out what it is.

In my group, Niles is whistling an unfamiliar tune while the rest of us simply walk along the hunter's trail, a simple dirt path that Takumi used earlier this morning. We shouldn't be that much farther from the watering hole he was attacked at. I idly shift power into my left hand, changing absentmindedly between fingers and talons. I feel a pair of eyes on me, and I catch Oboro curiously glancing at me again. "Something on your mind?" I ask her.

"O-oh, no, sorry. Just...fascinated. Your shapeshifting is totally different from any other I've seen," the blue haired lancer steps a little closer to examine my silver, knife-like digits.

"Ah, is that so?"

"Yes, it's very...refined?" Oboro glances off into the distance, searching for the right words. "Wolfskin and kitsune shapeshifting seems to be all or nothing. Human form or beast form. But yours is so...flexible. You can change individual parts at will. Doesn't it hurt to do that?" she asks, head slightly tilted.

"It isn't that much different from flexing your muscles normally, really." I channel power into my entire arm, morphing it into a powerful, silver-scaled limb that still eluded familiarity. I make a show of curling it and flexing my talons. She _oohs_ appropriately. "It was surprisingly easy to master once I had a dragonstone. Before that..." I trail off, shaking my head. "Ask Felicia or Flora later, if you want to know. I don't want to talk about that here. Anyway, it's not as complicated as it looks. It's like...a sculpture."

"A sculpture? How?"

"You ever hear a sculptor describe a block of stone? How the statue is already there, waiting to be created? It's like that," I say, releasing the power's grip on my arm, watching it return to the lightly tanned skin of a human arm. "Even like this, the potential dragon is still inside my arm, waiting for my command to return to the surface."

"Incredible...I've never heard of anything like that," Oboro says.

"That's because Master Corrin is probably the only person in the world with such an ability," Felicia interrupts. Then she lets out a nervous squeak, bowing to me and apologizing. "S-sorry! I shouldn't have said that!" Oboro and Niles look curiously at the two of us.

I wave her off, sighing. "It's fine, nothing to worry about." My journey with Azura has let me come to terms with my unique 'condition'. What I once considered an awful curse of some angry deity is I now something I regard with appreciation every day.

"Not that I'm not intrigued," Niles interrupts. "Really, I am. But it looks like your green ninja friend is back." Sure enough, Kaze is walking towards us with the front group in tow. He bows quickly and begins to address me. "Prince Corrin, I've located the watering hole Prince Takumi was ambushed at. It's no more than five minutes ahead of us. There are at least ten wights there, waiting." Kaze frowns, his brow furrowing."Furthermore...they are well-equipped. Much better than anything we have encountered so far. I couldn't make it all out, but they seemed to have mostly steel weapons and armor, sharp and sturdy. And I am certain I saw the dull shimmer of at least one dragonbane weapon."

"Disconcerting," Nyx says, rubbing her chin. "But not surprising. We were expecting Anankos to stop throwing trash at us eventually."

Silas moans and ruffles his hair. "I was kinda hoping that was all he had. Too much to hope for easy victories forever, I suppose."

"They were no challenge to us," Sakura adds. "But all the villages and towns they've attacked..." she grips her festal staff more tightly, quiet determination welling up. Sakura has come a long way from the painfully shy girl who could barely handle eye contact with a stranger.

"Don't you worry, Princess!" says Hinata, stepping forward to reassure her with a grin. "We'll crush 'em good!"

I look at Kaze. "You said they werewaiting? As in, just standing there?"

He nods. "They were almost completely motionless. I'm unsure as to why they would simply stand around and wait. Perhaps they are awaiting a command?"

I frown. This is unheard of. All the wights we've encountered so far have been borderline brainless, incapable of anything but direct combat. Like the Faceless, but without the overwhelming rage and supernaturally strong bodies. Their rusty and worn equipment, lack of tactics and nonexistent combat technique made for pathetically easy opponents, easily beaten by even city guardsmen or bandits. The wights wouldn't be much of a threat at all, if not for their invisibility power-and their tendency to ambush vulnerable targets, especially poorly defended villages and caravans.

"Maybe their equipment isn't the only improvement. They might be able to think, use tactics. They could be setting a trap," I finally say. "Did you notice anything else unusual? Any weird magic?"

Kaze quickly bows again. "My apologies. My magical training is limited. If there is magical trickery in play, I did not notice it."

I rub my chin, trying to come up with the best strategy. "Nyx, how confident are you that you could detect any magical traps or illusions?"

She shakes her head. "Wights cannot use magic, Prince Corrin. Any traps would be of a physical nature, which Kaze would have detected." I glance at Kaze, who nods his affirmation.

"Well, I guess if they're going to just stand there, let's move to the perimeter of the clearing and bombard them with ranged attacks. There won't be any trees to block us, so they'll be easy targets." Everyone nods their acknowledgment and we get moving again. Oboro doesn't attempt to resume our conversation, rightfully so, since we are about to engage the enemy. I increase my pace to catch up to Silas, tapping him on the shoulder. "Silas, I'm going to draw as much attention as I can. I'm counting on you to watch my sides, yeah?"

He laughs once and turns away, waving. "Sure, sure. So the same as every fight then, got it." I smile. Silas and I have had quite the role reversal since our childhood.

When I spot something glimmering among the trees out of the corner of my eye, my smile fades. I stop and focus intently on it, instinctively reaching for Yato's grip. But as I look closer, the glimmering stops and the light fades away. I rub my eyes and look again.

...

Not there. Did I imagine it?

"Is something wrong?" says Benny, coming up to stop next to me.

"Did you see something shiny over there?" I point. He covers his hand with his eyes and stares.

"No..."

"I see something shiny over there," Sakura comes up at points at another glimmering light off to the left, obscured from Benny and myself by a large pine tree. "Look, it's moving!" The light moves to the side in an upward arc twice before stopping. Suddenly, I shiver, feeling the hairs on my neck stand up. Something in my gut tightens and my instincts tell me to draw Yato.

"Look out!" a deep voice booms and something heavy collides into me, knocking me to the ground. A whizzing sound zips past my head and is followed by a metallic thud. I glance up and see an arrow embedded in Benny's shield, a shocked Sakura behind him.

"We're surrounded!" someone shouts. All around us, glimmering lights appear and swiftly meld into physical forms. The wights are appearing from thin air! The ones closest to me are hulking, axe-wielding brutes and heavily armored foot soldiers. Further away, positioned on a slight high ground given by the hilly terrain, are wights equipped with longbows, including the one that just loosed an arrow at Sakura. Damn, there has to be at least fifteen of them in all!

The forest is suddenly completely silent. No one else has reached for their weapon yet, and the wights have yet to make another move. Are they planning something? Is Anankos going to make an appearance? My questions are answered when one more phantom shimmers and becomes visible, emerging from behind a thick evergreen. It is wearing black robes made of what looks like feathers and is clutching a book to its chest. Its face is obscured by some kind of headdress.

"Dark mage," Niles swears under his breath, rolling his bow off of his shoulder.

"Impossible," Nyx whispers. "Undead can't use magic..."

The dark mage points at us with its free hand and speaks in an a cold, uncaring tone allowed only to the undead. "Kill them all." The wights all spring into action at once, the armored knights and axe-wielders charging directly at us. The other archers release their arrows at Sakura, most of which are deflected by Benny's massive shield. One hits the dirt near me, narrowly missing my foot and reminding me that I need to get off my back. I kick myself up off the ground, raising my fist.

"Niles and Nyx, kill the archers! Benny, Hinata, protect Sakura!" I shout, drawing Yato and charging right for the nearest wight. Benny positions himself in front of Sakura, her tiny body completely dwarfed by the massive man in metal. We've been caught far too off guard to worry about commanding the others. My immediate priority is to kill the enemies in front of me as fast as I can and draw as much attention as possible!

A roaring wight rushes at me, preparing to bring its axe downward. In the back of my mind I note that this is the first time I've ever heard a wight talk or even grunt. Not only do these wights have much better equipment than anything we've faced before, but their bodies are probably much stronger as well. I nimbly leap to the left and slash at the brute's legs, bringing it down with a loud _thump_. I thrust my blade into the nape of its neck and turn my attention to the two greatsword wielders charging at me. Rather than try to dodge the both of them at once, I morph my off-hand into a pistol claw and fire a high-pressure bolt of water at the closer knight. The projectile pierces right through its plate helmet and the knight collapses instantly.

The remaining knight reaches me, swinging its massive steel blade. I parry horizontally, deflecting it with Yato, and throwing the wight off balance. I quickly thrust into the exposed, pale neck between its helmet and platebody. It falls to its knees, grasping its throat and seemingly bleeding purple fog. It falls dead soon after. Quickly spinning around to survey the situation, I catch the glint of something metal. Rolling to the side as the arrow whizzes past me, I hear another guttural roar coming up from behind me. I use the momentum of my roll to get upright again, whirling around and bringing Yato up to intercept the axe's swing. The heavily muscled berserker is far stronger than the knight that I parried and I struggle to hold my ground against it, dropping to one knee. A yell from my side, and suddenly the unnaturally strong wight drops to the dirt, missing its head.

A black gauntlet helps me to my feet and I mutter some thanks to Silas. He nods and smiles grimly before crying out in pain and slumping into me. "Silas! Are you alright?" Thankfully, he manages to push off me and stand back up. He turns around, showing me the arrow embedded in his back.

"Armor got most of that. Mind taking that out?" I comply, and he charges back into the fray without hesitation. In the distance I can see Nyx unleashing a dark magic spell on two armored knights, blasting them off their feet. Behind her, I can make out Kaze's agile figure as he darts around, throwing shurikens at the dark mage and dodging his arcane blasts of lightning.

"I could use some help over here!" a frantic voice calls out from behind. I shift power into the muscles of my legs as I rush to aid Benny, who just slammed a wight off its feet with his shield. A berserker takes the opportunity to slash at Benny's exposed chest, but his thick armor deflects most of the blow, allowing Benny to slug the it in the face with his lance-hand. As the wight stumbles backwards, I close the distance and slam into it, sending it to the ground. I morph my off-hand into an inelegant mace of armored dragonskin and bring it down hard on the berserker's head, killing it instantly. Benny stabs the wight he knocked down through the chest with his lance. It roars, swiping at him with its hands before going still.

"You okay?" I ask him, parrying a blow from a sword-and-shield wielding wight.

"Fine!" He shouts, slamming his shield into an armored knight with a terrible _clang_.

I kick with my opponent with an armored foot to stagger him before crushing his chest with my mace-hand. Just as I'm wondering why Sakura isn't with Benny, I hear a shrill scream from my left. Spinning around, I see a brown haired samurai fall to the ground and roll down the slight slope of the forest ground, staining the autumn leaves crimson. My vision tunnels inward as I start sprinting towards his attacker, a ridiculously well-armored wight.

The looming tower of grey metal that downed Hinata doesn't bother checking if its opponent was finished off, instead turning its lance towards the terrified princess. To her credit, Sakura did not freeze up or panic. Instead, she unleashed a purple specter of an ox from her festal staff, which charged towards the metal monster, goring it and passing right through its body. The wight stumbled and dropped to one knee, clutching its chest in pain. It barely had time to glance up and register the enraged half-dragon slam into it with tremendous force, knocking it to the ground.

This thing might have killed Hinata.

I slam my armored fist into its helmet, cracking the faceguard.

My vision starts turning red.

It has to die.

I know this is a horrible time to lose control to the dragon, but it has to _die!_

Yato drops to the ground as my both of my hands morph. I grip the crack in the wight's helmet, pulling it apart. The monster pathetically tries to defend itself with its hands as I ferociously shred its exposed face with my talons. Even after it ceases its resistance and its arms falls limp, I don't stop slashing at it. Eventually though, I slow down. I pant heavily as my senses start to come back to me. Purple fog leaks from the ruined helmet of the dead wight.

My vision slowly goes back to normal as I glance around the forest battlefield. In the distance I think I can see Kaze stepping on the corpse of the dark mage as he pulls out his shurikens. I guess that must have been the leader wight. Shakily pushing myself up off the armor of the dead wight, I see Niles and Sakura crouching over an unmoving Hinata. Niles is pushing down on Hinata's bandaged left leg as the golden aura emanating from Sakura's festal shimmers over his wounds. In my groggy, post-rage state, I spend far too long being entranced by the sparkling magic.

"Master Corrin! Behind you!" a shrill voice cries. I turn to see a lightly armored wight sprinting at me, wielding two blades of a dull blue. Dragonbane! I try to sidestep its strike, but trip over the armor of the wight I killed. A horrible, searing pain flashes up my back as I stumble into the dirt. This isn't my first time being wounded by a dragonbane weapon, so I know that I have about five seconds before an unnatural, excruciating pain wracks my entire body. I ungracefully tumble over onto my rear, supporting myself with one arm as I morph the other into a pistol claw, firing a deadly bolt of water at my attacker. Unfortunately, the pain comes just before I can fire, and my arm seizes up, throwing off my aim. The bolt completely misses and instead clips a tree, splinters of bark flying into the air.

The dragonbane blades only grazed me, but my body still seizes with unbearable pain as I howl, spasming in the mud and leaves. The dual wielding wight turns and cockily points one of its swords at me, laughing maniacally. "Oh, how I've missed that sound! Do scream in agony some more for me, _boy_."

I grit my teeth in defiance, staring up at the possessed wight as the final aftershocks from the dragonbane finally leave my body. "You again," I spit venomously, bracing my unsteady body on my hands and knees.

The wight laughs again. "How do you enjoy these new toys? They're much more fun to play with, no?" I didn't notice it before, but this wight has a faint purple glow around it. I guess that must be the sign that Anankos is possessing it. Nyx, who is standing behind the wight, clutches her grimoire to her chest and unleashes a swirling, dark orb of energy at the wight.

"Enough of your insane rambling!" she shouts. The possessed puppet tries to evade, but it is too slow. The orb collides with the back of the wight, causing it to howl in pain and double over.

"Insolent little bitch!" the wight screams, spinning around to face Nyx. It starts to move towards her but doesn't get very far before the point of an arrow emerges from right between its eyes. The expression on its face is one of surprise at unexpectedly sprouting a horn. It falls face first into the dirt. Niles doesn't even bother giving it a one-liner before he turns his focus back to his injured patient.

Silas comes over and helps me to my feet again. Behind him is Sakura, who must have finished healing Hinata. "Don't worry, brother! I'll help you!"

I wave her off, bending over to catch my breath. "Save it for Hinata. He needs your help more than I do." She frowns, but nods. My wounds hurt like hellfire, but I know from experience that they will heal on their own. Sakura can't waste her energy on me right now. Breathing deeply, I survey the battlefield. I see Oboro struggling to pull her naginata out of a dead wight's armor, Kaze dragging the corpse of the dead mage wight towards us. Just as I'm about to ask where Felicia is, I feel a cool comfort seep throughout my injured body.

"Princess Sakura can help Hinata's wounds. I'll tend to yours," says Felicia, appearing from behind me. Her outfit is filthy and torn up, but she doesn't appear injured. I nod, holding still and allowing her to treat me. A moan of relief escapes my lips as the burning sensation coming from my back dulls.

"Are there any left?" I shout, suddenly remembering. "We still need one alive!"

"I've got one pinned over here! Come help!" yells Benny, who is standing on the broken arm of a flailing wight while pressing the point of his shield into the other. All of us rush over to help him, save Sakura, Niles, and the unconscious Hinata. As we approach, the pinned wight stops wriggling as a faint purple aura envelops it.

"Oh, well _done_ boy. You've gone and broken them all! You shouldn't be so rough with your toys!" The wight spits an array of taunts at me as I approach. I ignore them all, bloodlust gleaming in my eyes.

"So, your new puppets can feel pain, huh?" I sneer, grinning wickedly. Benny releases the shield holding the wight down as I replace it with my foot. "Then by all means, stay inside that puppet. This should be fun." I stomp down _hard_ , hearing a delightful cracking noise. The possessed wight howls in pain between crazed bouts of laughter. I move around to the legs of the insane creature, stomping down on both of its feet. Now that the puppet is completely crippled, I signal Benny to step off it. I crouch down on one knee, examining the wight more closely. Anankos continues to squirm around and spit taunts at me, using what little mobility he has left.

"Nyx. As long as there aren't any stab or slash wounds for that...'mist' to escape from, the wight won't be destroyed, correct?"

She stares at me for a moment, head slightly tilted, before nodding. With her silent approval, I smash my fist into the wight's face, breaking its teeth and possibly its jaw. I stand up, dusting my hands together. "There. Silenced and immobilized." The purple glow has finally left-I guess Anankos had his fill of masochism for the day.

I glance around at each of my comrades. Benny and Sakura seem a little uneasy after witnessing my brutal side, but nod at me anyway. "Anyone have serious wounds?" I ask. Silas is grimacing and holding his shoulder tightly, but shakes his head. Benny frowns and starts silently pulling arrows out of his shield and armor. Everyone else, save Hinata and myself, seems to have gotten out unscathed.

"Alright!" I say, clapping my hands together. "Sakura! Can Hinata be moved?"

"Y-yes! We've managed to stop the bleeding. It should be okay."

"We need to move before anything else shows up. Those wights Kaze saw at the pond were probably illusions, but we can't be certain," I say, rolling my shoulders. "I'll carry Hinata. Niles, Oboro, bring our captive. Kaze, Felicia, bring the corpse of the mage. Leave everything else."

"Even the dragonbane swords?" Nyx asks.

"Bring those," I say, reconsidering. "Hurry, people!" The soldiers spring to life, carrying out my orders. I walk over to Hinata, still lying unconscious among bloodstained leaves. "Come on, buddy. What would Takumi say if I let you die on your first mission under my command?" I hoist him up over my shoulder and start along the path back to the castle.

It's a small miracle that we made it out of this without any deaths. We are bruised and bleeding, but I can't help but grin. If Anankos decides to possess that puppet again, he's going to have a hell of a time experiencing a vivisection firsthand.

* * *

As we cleared the forest tree line and came within sight of the castle, the sentinels on the wall spotted us and raised an alarm. Pegasi riders intercepted us, offering fast transportation back to the castle. I let them take the corpse of the dead mage but insisted that we keep the crippled wight on the ground. Even with all of its limbs broken, there was a chance it could wriggle itself off a flying pegasus, denying us a captive. Sakura deemed it too risky to put Hinata on a pegasus, as the rough motions of flight might cause his wounds to open up again.

We all made it inside the castle without incident. As the portcullis slid upwards, Leo was already standing on the other side, several healers in tow. They guided me to a large brown tent setup nearby the gate. They helped me strip off my damaged armor and set me down face first onto a hospital cot, dabbing the wounds on my back with cold liquids. Leo sits on a chair and is silent until the healers finish their initial work, leaving us to talk.

"What happened out there, brother?" he asks, his voice unusually soft.

"It was a trap from the start. We got ambushed by wights. They probably _let_ Takumi get away to lure us out."

" _Wights?_ Wights did _this?_ " He says incredulously, pointing to the ugly slashes on my back.

"Those are from dragonbane. Anankos decided to stop sending half-rate undead at us, Leo. They were well armed, and they could think. They waited for us to walk into their ambush, attacking us from invisibility. They knew how to prioritize targets, too. They tried to take out our healer first. And they could fight, too. Dodging, parrying...they're not Faceless in human form anymore."

Leo blinks at me. "You truly have the devil's own luck, brother. To escape all that with only one casualty..."

"About that. Is Hinata alright?"

Leo frowns. "I don't know, I haven't seen him. Princess Sakura seemed to think he would be okay." Leo trails off, absentmindedly flipping through the pages of Brynhildr as he is prone to do when he doesn't know what to say. Eventually, he looks at me. "There's something else."

"What's that?"

"Why the hell did you bring one back _alive?_ "

I sigh into my pillow. "Right, didn't get the chance to tell you. I'm going to have Nyx experiment on it."

"Err...right. That's...very logical, actually," he says sheepishly.

"Do you know much about necromancy? Maybe you could assist her. We need to discover their weaknesses."

"I wasn't aware Nyx was an expert necromancer. But yes, I can probably help."

"Alright, that's good. Can you do a favor for me before you go?"

"Of course. What is it?"

"Go and hold an impromptu war council. Bring the uninjured soldiers I had. Spread the word that the wights aren't to be trifled with anymore. No more hunting in the forest. And unless the situation is desperate, don't send out any response forces. Not until we know more."

Leo nods, understanding the full implications of those orders. "Understood. Please heal swiftly, Corrin." Leo stands up and heads to the tent entrance but stops before leaving. He turns around and smiles amusedly. "Seems you have another visitor. I'll be off, then," he says, waving.

"Bye." I bury my face in my pillow, desperately wishing I could get up and move around. Muffled voices from outside die down and light briefly envelops the interior of the hospital tent once more. "Forgive me for not turning to greet you, but I can't exactly move right now," I offer to my visitor, my voice partially muffled by my pillow.

"I-it's just me, Oboro, Prince Corrin," a slightly nervous woman answers.

"Oh, hey. How are you? I'm pretty sure nothing hit you, right?"

"Yes. I was not injured." Oboro moves a chair closer to me so I can look at her as we converse. "That grievous slash on your back...it looks awful..." she says, sitting down.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to tell the injured person that it doesn't look so bad?" I smirk, although only half my face is visible to her.

She smiles weakly at that. "Sorry. Just concerned. And...grateful. Without you there...that ambush could have been much worse. I'm...I apologize for allowing you to be wounded," she says, quickly bowing her head.

I weakly wave her off with my free hand. "Oh, psh, you weren't anywhere near me. It's my fault, not yours. And besides, this little scratch? I'll heal this fully in a day or two."

"I don't know if I would call a wound from a weapon specifically designed to kill you a scratch," calls a familiar, sarcastic voice from the tent's entrance. "You're being awfully casual about that, aren't you?"

"Prince Takumi!" Oboro stands and salutes him.

"Relax," he says, shooing her away. "No formalities in a hospital tent, I always say." As Takumi walks in front of me and takes up another chair next to Oboro I can see that his arm is in a sling. The arrow he took earlier this morning wasn't an especially bad injury, but he won't be using his bow for at least a week.

"You would, since you're in them so often," I point out. "Aiming for an arrow-related injury in each body part?"

"You're one to talk! You've had more trips to the healers than me!"

"I regenerate all my wounds in days, so I take more of 'em."

"Bastard, don't remind me," he says glumly. "I already have enough reasons to be jealous of you."

"Um..." Oboro seems unsure how to react to the situation.

"You do have one advantage over me, _nii-chan,_ " I tease, using his hated pet name.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" he says, rolling his eyes.

"I can't get any cool scars. You'll have all the ladies swooning over their battle-scarred prince!" Takumi laughs heartily at that, which I try to echo until I remember that it _really_ hurts to laugh right now. Noticing my grimace, Takumi stops laughing and frowns.

"Seriously," he says, leaning over to examine the wounds on my back. "This is disgusting. It's more like a burn wound than a slashing wound."

"By all means, keep watching. If you look close enough, you can see the skin mending itself back together."

He reels back, astounded. "What, really? That's awesome!"

Oboro looks away, rubbing her temples. "And really gross." I laugh as gently as I can manage.

"Dragon superpowers at work." Growing more serious, I tilt my head to look at Takumi. "Seriously, I'll be fine. Not the first time I've been hurt by dragonbane. More importantly...have you seen Hinata? Is he alright?"

Takumi and Oboro's faces both darken and they briefly glance at each other. "He should be fine, but he'll be out of it for a long while," says Takumi after a long pause. "He would have bled to death without those bandages. That was...Leo's retainer, wasn't it? The eyepatch guy."

"Niles. Yeah, he's the one who did it. If you're gonna go look for him, be warned ahead of time he likes to embarrass and insult people for fun."

"He would do that to a prince!?" Oboro says, standing up angrily.

I laugh weakly. "Not his. He's not a bad guy, though. I mean, he saved the life of basically a total stranger, putting himself at risk during the fight."

"Tch..." Oboro sits down, crossing her arms.

"Regardless," Takumi says, with a surprisingly commanding tone. "We're going to go find him and thank him. Some insults and teasing is a worthy price for Hinata's life." His face is stern and composed. Oboro looks angry but says nothing.

"That's the spirit," I smile at Takumi. "Besides, I kinda appreciate his banter now. It can be pretty hilarious. Anyway... How are the others? And what about the wight I captured?"

"I still can't believe you did that," Takumi says, crossing his arms. "I mean, I see the point, but it just...feels _wrong_ , bringing one of those things into the castle." He trails off for a moment before collecting himself. "Yeah, it's secure in the laboratory building. Not like it could do anything with four broken limbs, anyway."

Oboro nods and speaks up, her face composed again. "Everyone else is fine, physically. Suzukaze got shocked by that mage but he healed his own wounds. The N-" Oboro cuts herself off, biting her tongue. Takumi frowns at her. "The men in the black armor took a few light wounds but are already recovered." Benny and Silas are fine, that's a relief. It can be pretty hard to tell if attacks actually penetrate their thick armor. Then she says something that surprises me. "Your maid, though...Felicia? She seemed really distraught."

"Distraught? Any idea what about?"

Oboro shakes her head. "It might just be that her master was injured in battle. I know I was certainly 'upset' when I found out Takumi got shot _again_." Oboro gives Takumi a death glare with he looks away from, laughing nervously.

I sigh. "Guess I'll go and talk with her once I'm moving again." I hope she's not blaming herself for me getting wounded. I love Felicia and Flora dearly, but they both have a tendency to belittle themselves in the face of perceived failures.

The tent flaps open again and one of my healers steps inside. "My apologies, Prince Takumi and Lady Oboro, but I must ask you to leave now. I need to tend to Prince Corrin's wounds," she says.

"Sure, sure," Takumi says, standing up. "Come on. Let's go find this Niles. No death glares, got it?" he tells Oboro with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes..." she says glumly. Takumi waves as he leaves. Oboro turns back to me before she leaves, smiling brightly and offering a quick bow before following Takumi out of the tent.

* * *

I spent the rest of the day mostly alone in the hospital tent, being treated by the healers. Jakob came to check on me, bringing some dinner with him. When I asked him if Felicia seemed depressed, he said that she did, and that he had asked her about it, although she 'didn't want to talk about it'. Sakura and Elise came by together as well, keeping me company for a while (and sharing some sweets they had 'borrowed' from the mess hall). I worry Elise may be slowly corrupting her Hoshidan counterpart.

Several hours after the sun went down, the healers decided my wounds had been mended sufficiently and released me. As I walk along the castle's gravel paths, I munch on a dinner roll Jakob brought me. The cool midnight air feels very refreshing on my skin after being immobilized in a tent for half a day. I reflect on the day's events as I leisurely make my way towards my quarters, basking in the quiet atmosphere. On a whim, perhaps subconscious, I change my path. Instead of going right and heading directly to my room, I decide to continue on straight. I swallow the last bite of my roll and stretch my arms out. With how much resting I've done today, I don't think I'll be able to fall asleep. I think I'll wander the castle grounds for a while, instead.

When I reach the central garden, which I designed to allow good visibility in all directions, I can see light seeping from the laboratory building. I guess Nyx and Leo are definitely the type to burn the midnight oil on such an important task. The memory of the Anankos-possessed wights swims back into my mind. I smile at the incredibly satisfying vengeance of making Anankos scream in agony. Feeling pain seems like a pretty idiotic drawback to possession. Maybe there's some magical trickery involved with it...perhaps a wight gets stronger abilities when Anankos assumes direct control.

I sigh and mentally chide myself for losing control earlier. Anankos is free to waste his breath on taunting me all he wants; I won't fall for it anymore. It even made him an easy target for Nyx and Niles today. But when I saw Hinata collapse...I just... lost it. I knew I was losing it, too, but I let it happen anyway...Even with these new, stronger wights, I'm still my own greatest enemy. I have to keep working on my discipline and self-control. Tomorrow I should-

"Prince Corrin?" asks a curious female voice. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice that my legs were still taking me around the castle! I look around and see a slightly confused Oboro, leaning out of the doorway of the supply building. "Is it safe for you to be moving around?" she asks.

"Oh yeah, I got cleared by the healers not too long ago." I turn around, showing her my back. "See? Already closed up, and the burned skin is already healing."

"I-I see. That's really some incredible power," she says, turning away quickly. Is she blushing?

Then I realize that maybe I've gotten a little too comfortable. It's probably not appropriate for a prince to be walking around at midnight without a shirt on, even if he did just get out of the hospital. Even if it is his castle. I rub the back of my head, smiling apologetically. "Uh, sorry. They kind of destroyed my shirt to get at my wounds and didn't give me a new one when I left."

"Oh. I could make you a new one, if you like?" she offers.

"I mean, it was just a simple shirt. You don't really need to waste your talents on that."

"I insist. Please allow me to do this to assuage myself of any lingering guilt for your injury!"

I chuckle quietly. "I still say you did nothing wrong, but sure, if you insist." I notice Oboro's been holding a broom this whole time. "Are you on late night cleaning duty again?"

"Err, yes." Her eyes can't seem to decide if they are going to look at me or not.

"Want some help again?"

"I couldn't ask that of you, Prince Corrin..."

"You didn't ask, I volunteered. I doubt I'm going to get any sleep tonight anyway."

"Um...well..." she fidgets, turning away again with a blush. "I'm sorry! It would be just way too awkward working with you half-naked!" She quickly bows in apology.

"Oh. Um, right." I turn away to hide my own embarrassment. "Ehehe. Be right back!" I turn the opposite direction and start lightly jogging to my quarters.

The storeroom is messier than I expected. After a while of moving boxes, sweeping, and tallying inventories, we decide to take a breather. We both sit down against the wall and quietly discuss the latest happenings. She shares with me the reactions to the impromptu war council I had Leo hold earlier. It's about what I expected. Nobody is that surprised that Anankos was keeping strong undead in reserve. Everyone was very relieved that we survived the ambush without any fatalities. Eventually we reach a lull in the conversation and both silently watch the full moon through the storeroom's high-up window.

"I talked to your maid Flora today," says Oboro, breaking the silence. "About your earlier days."

"Is that right," I murmur, taking a drink of water from a borrowed canteen.

She simply nods, bringing her knees close to her chest and holding them tight.

"Do you want to ask me about it?" I say, capping the canteen and putting it off to the side.

She nods and takes her time before speaking. " I...when we first met, months ago in Shirasagi... I wasn't sure how to react to you. Your dress, your mannerisms, your speech were all so...very Nohrian. But you're the long lost prince of Hoshido. The older brother to my liege. I was conflicted, to say the least. So I just... avoided you." She lets out a soft sigh. "That's why we never spoke outside our first introduction."

"And then, with the scandal of your mother's murder...I was sure it was you." She lets out an even softer sigh, shaking her head. "I was convinced your 'recapture' was all just a Nohrian ploy to murder the queen of your enemies. I was convinced you were an utterly vile person. Which... is why I attacked you the instant I saw you when you came to recruit Prince Takumi to your cause. Sorry about that," she laughs nervously.

"I can let that one slide," I laugh too. "Your fury was righteous. You put up quite a fight, too!"

"Until you turned your hand into a blade and cut my naginata in half," she says smiling.

"See, that's why Nohrian lances are made of steel. Strictly so half-dragons can't cut them."

"Would that really stop you? You can't cut through steel?" she says, offering her trademark smirk.

"Well...it would be a lot tougher, at least!" We both smile and I reach over to take another drink from my canteen. Cleaning a storeroom can be surprisingly hard work.

"Sorry about that scene in the tent earlier," I rub the back of my head, running my hair through my fingers. "That's kinda how Takumi and I interact now."

"There's no need to apologize. It was...rather strange, but I suppose anything is better than actively trying to murder each other."

"Agreed."

"Honestly, it was kind of refreshing. It's been a while since he's been able to trade banter like that." Oboro's face grows into a smile. "He probably won't say it, but I know that he's very happy that you're allies now."

"So am I," I nod. We break eye contact and let the cool, tranquil silence of the midnight atmosphere fill the room again. Even though I haven't slept in over a day now, I don't feel tired in the least.

Eventually, Oboro breaks the silence again, her face composed and voice determined. "I'm going to try a lot harder not to judge Nohrians the way I have. I have no right to continue to treat them like monsters. Not after what I've seen today...and learned about you. What you've been through...I can't even compare to that."

I turn back to the moon and smile solemnly. "Why do you say that?"

Oboro looks at the floor. "Your childhood was far worse than mine. My parents were simply murdered. Yours deliberately tried to make your life as terrible as possible. Imprisoning you in a lonely castle and constantly reminding you that you were a burden. Not to mention the fits of draconic rage. I can only imagine how agonizing that must have been, both physically and mentally."

"It was pretty bad," I weakly offer.

"But you didn't let it break you. You didn't let it warp you, either. You put your pain and hatred aside and strived for peaceful solutions." She smiles painfully. "You managed to create a truce between Hoshido and Nohr while being a _wanted murderer_ , evading otherworldly pursuers, mastering your dragon powers, _and_ uncovering the truth of Valla. You're a _much_ stronger person than me, Corrin."

"I disagree."

"W-what?" her eyes widen in surprise and lock with mine.

"Everything you did, Oboro, in your early years...you were alone, weren't you?" I shift my position so I face directly at her. "Until you became Takumi's retainer, you didn't have anybody." Her silent, pained gaze confirms my suspicion. "I couldn't have done that. If I was alone, I _would_ have broken, I _would_ have been warped by hatred." I let out a breath, uncomfortable memories becoming familiar again. "It got pretty close as it was. There was one time...by far the worst fit I had ever had at that point. It was unbearable. When it finally stopped, I seriously considered jumping off a guard tower so I wouldn't ever have to go through that again."

"I...didn't know..."

I shake my head. "No one does. I've never told anyone. Well, except you, now." I smile sadly. Oboro's face is an unpleasant mixture of pity and guilt. I shake my head again. "Don't go feeling sorry for me. It's the same for you, right? Our histories are horrible. Painful, and twisted with violence. But we can appreciate what they've done for us. How it forced us to grow, made us respect certain things. Pity is an insult to that growth."

I take a breath and look Oboro right in the eyes. "So, no, Oboro, I don't agree that I'm stronger than you. Physically, sure, but that's not a fair contest," I smirk, desperately wanting to see her pained gaze recede for even a moment. "We haven't known each other for all that long, but we've fought with and against each other. I can tell the strength of your spirit. Even when you were wrong and attacked me, you had the right reasons. Even though you blame Nohr for your parent's murder, you have the strength to understand that you've been unfairly blaming innocent people. Even today, with Niles! There probably isn't a better symbol for the problems of Nohr than Niles, but you put your hatred aside for the sake of your friend."

"I..." she mumbles incomprehensibly.

I shake my head again. "I say you are the stronger person."

Oboro's lips move, but no sound comes out. Her eyes are starting to well up.

"I couldn't have done what you've done if I were in your position, Oboro Sato. If I grew up alone, I would have lost myself. To hatred and misery...or to one of two rampaging dragons," I say, smiling.

Oboro's face remains one of surprise and disbelief for several seconds, until it shifts into a teary smile, beaming brilliantly. "Corrin...thank you. That...that was the kindest thing anyone has ever said to me," she says, eyes twinkling in the moonlight.

"You're very welcome. Now...how about we finish up in here before the sun rises?" We both stand up and dust off our clothes. For a brief moment, Oboro eclipses the moonlight coming in through the window.

I wasn't sure which one was shining brighter.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Well, here we are, a month later. Coming soon, eh. Well, I sure won't be critcizing any other authors ever again for having long stretches between release. No real excuse here - I just didn't get back into it for a while. I haven't been totally idle, though, as I'll mention again later. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! All feedback welcome.

* * *

I stretch out my arms to greet the cloudy morning sky with a yawn. Unsurprisingly, I didn't sleep much. Partly because I finally managed to slump into bed barely an hour or two before the sun started to rise, and partly because I was confined to a hospital bed for the better part of yesterday. I rub my eyes and glance out of my window to get a glimpse of the sunrise. It's quite pretty, actually. I never really got to see many sunrises before. With my sleeping schedule at my childhood prison, Felicia and Flora would have to wake me up most of the time, gently lowering the room temperature until I woke up shivering. If I was really unlucky, it would be Gunther who would simply yank me out of bed and drag me off to the training yard.

I smile at the memory. How absurd that I would come to regard such torture with nostalgia. I lean out of bed and scratch at my chin. Actually, I _am_ up fairly early. There might be a rare chance for some payback on the warden today! Except...I haven't seen or heard anything about Gunther in months, not since he was shoved into the Bottomless Canyon. At the time, I thought he was simply murdered by a bloodthirsty criminal. But now I realize an even crueler fate awaited him at the bottom of that scar upon the world. I don't want to get my hopes up that the old soldier who was basically my father figure might somehow be alive in the ruined realm of Valla. I push the thoughts out of my mind as I dress myself.

I consider going out to find Felicia and Flora to get an early start on the day's tasks, but I decide it would probably be better to wait until they've had breakfast. Conveniently, my stomach grumbles at the thought. "Speaking of breakfast..." I haven't much food recently except for the leftovers Jakob brought me in the hospital last night.

I could really go for some coffee, too.

* * *

As much as I would have liked to abuse my royal privileges, the mess hall doesn't open prematurely for anyone. Instead, I opt to pass the time by heading over to my favorite training spot behind the blacksmith building. The building is nestled between the southwest corner of the castle and armory. The location is fairly isolated and the buildings provide reasonable privacy.

A defiant shrub grows between the blacksmith's and the wall, despite the near constant shade. Perhaps it draws its resilience from the building it hides behind. Pushing aside my drowsy mental ramblings, I start stretching out my sore limbs. My back seems to have healed up nicely and I can only feel a tiny fraction of the pain that I had yesterday.

My old morning workout mainly consisted of pull ups, push ups, and star jumps. I still do those, but now that I've gained a vastly superior degree of control over my transformation abilities, I incorporate my powers into my workout. My current record for one (dragon) armed push ups is two hundred and eighty-seven. As I pass fifty, a curious whim finds its way into my head. Standing up, I gather a few loose stones from around the blacksmith and pocket them. I carefully leap onto the top of the building with an empowered _swoosh_ of my wings, and then onto the top of the walls with one more.

The watchtower in this corner of the wall is currently vacant. Sentries patrol the walls at all times, but no one is assigned to this section for the moment-the sentries are probably changing positions. I take the opportune privacy to fully appreciate the brilliant sunrise. It's far more breathtaking from the top of the wall than from inside my bedroom. The southern side of the castle offers a very scenic view of the Sea of Nohr, sunlight sparking off the clear blue water like diamonds. After a few moments of aesthetic indulgence, I remember why I came up here.

I've been trying to think up new ways to incorporate my morphing body into a workout than simple push ups. So far, I've found that repeatedly using my wings as a human gets exhausting _fast_. Humans really were not meant to fly with their own bodies. I can't really fly in human form so much as make (admittedly impressive) superjumps. Repeatedly launching myself off the castle watchtowers to practice my gliding, however, has proven extremely enjoyable. I didn't come up here to practice gliding today, though.

Fishing out one of the pebbles in my pockets, I morph my right arm and grip it tightly. I've already learned that I can turn my hands into exceptionally bizarre appendages akin to a tropical shrimp known for its weaponized bubbles. My pistol claws are astonishingly powerful, capable of piercing full plate armor. Unfortunately, water does not make as good a projectile in the air as it does in water. The pressurized bolt of water I fire quickly loses accuracy and is unreliable at long range. I flip the pebble between my talons idly. I'm not looking to supplant my pistol claws with mere pebbles-I hardly use them at long range anyway-but the idea of seeing how far-and with how much force-I can throw something is an intriguing one. Perhaps I can move on to javelins and throwing knives later.

Although...a pebble isn't exactly a heroic weapon. But, then again, one of my deadliest powers is the ability to shoot _water_.

I breathe deeply, glancing out over the sea again. The distance from the castle wall to the shoreline isn't all that much. I switch the pebble into my human arm and throw it as hard as I can. The stone falls just short of the waves. I know I can shatter that record with a dragon's arm, but I hoped that I had more strength than that... I let out a disappointed breath. Wait, breath? Actually, that gives me an idea about morphing my lungs. I've never tested internal changes before, but if I could increase my air capacity...

"Doing some target practice?" a voice asks from above. I glance up to see an unusually somber, white-haired man with an eyepatch looking down at me from the watchtower.

"Sort of. A little variation on my morning workout," I say, glancing at the bow resting on his back. "I didn't know you had sentry duties, Niles."

He waves dismissively and turns towards the sea. "I didn't. I requested it, specifically this position and time." Niles pauses for a while, watching the waves crash onto the beach. "Sunrises always help me." I leap up and pull myself up and over the crenellations of the watchtower. Niles doesn't bat an eye, and I take up a spot along the side facing the ocean as well. We are silent for several minutes, watching the sun rise higher and higher.

"That was a pretty brave thing you did yesterday, Niles," I say, breaking the silence.

"What was?" He gives me a quick look.

"Risking yourself to bandage up Hinata like that."

"I suppose it was." He turns back to the sea.

Another minute or so of silence. I'm getting a little unnerved at how out of character Niles is being. What reason does he have to be so solemn?

"What are you thinking about?" I eventually ask him.

He pushes off the crenellations, sighing and sitting down cross-legged. "Oh, it's nothing to do with yesterday. I just get this way sometimes. Uncomfortable dreams and memories, you know the stuff. Sunrises...help," he adds weakly.

"I get it," I nod, sitting down as well. "I won't push you for details. I know I certainly don't want to bring my bad memories up again."

"Appreciated." Leaning back against the wall, Niles readjusts himself before pausing suddenly. "Again, huh?" A devious grin slips across his face, like a hunter who just cornered his prey.

Uh oh.

"That wouldn't happen to have anything to do with a midnight rendezvous with a certain Hoshidan seamstress, would it?" His grin continues to grow.

"How did you-" I can't even get the words out before I start having a mild panic attack. Gods, has he already given people the wrong idea? And to think for a second, I started feeling sympathy for this sadistic bastard!

"Oh, I was simply out for a midnight stroll when I happened upon two young lovers secretly scurrying away into the supply closet..." He closes his eyes, lost in his fantasies.

"Niles..." I growl.

"I wonder what sort of secret cleaning occurred in there? Did you remember to rearrange things other than your clothes?" he chuckles, stretching out his legs.

" **Niles**." I take the biggest rock I have out of my pocket and place it into my hand. Staring right at him, I channel power into my fist and easily crush the rock into dust. The smirk on his face drains away instantly.

"Got it, got it. No need to worry! I _did_ at least have the decency not to eavesdrop. I simply assumed you were sneaking off for a bit of post-combat stress relief. Was that not the case?" Mercifully, his teasing tone is gone. He seems to be honestly curious about my relationship with Oboro.

...what exactly _is_ my relationship with Oboro? I certainly don't think I can call her a mere acquaintance after we bared our souls to each other last night.

"No, that was not the case. I was restless from being in the hospital all day. When I was released, I ran into her by chance and helped burn off some energy by helping her clean."

He snorts, grin resurfacing. "So, you didn't-"

I am _not_ going to let him finish that sentence.

"No! No...handling of hard 'broomsticks', or whatever perverted innuendo you were going to say!"

He snorts again and bursts out laughing. "My sincere apologies for the misunderstanding, Prince Corrin!" He manages to say between breaths.

"Sincere apology, my ass," I say as I roll my eyes. "Glad I could help cheer you up by fueling your delusions." I stand up and dust off my clothes, stretching out my wings. "Now be a good little sentry boy while I go do important, leader-y things." My stomach grumbles again, louder than before. "Like getting some breakfast."

He laughs again and waves as I launch off the watchtower.

* * *

The clattering of plates and quiet conversations fills the mess hall. Dozens of early risers wait in line for their food or sit at the tables to softly complain to their companions about the unfairness of mornings. My own two companions are silent, albeit for different reasons. Flora has always been a very quiet eater, preferring not to have conversation and food at the same table. She maintains perfect posture as she daintily cuts at her pancakes. Felicia, on the other hand, is slouched over as she disinterestedly pushes her eggs around with a fork.

...this is very unlike her. Felicia is never one to skimp out on breakfast. 'A good breakfast is the best motivation for waking up!' she would say. On my off-days where I didn't have any early training, that usually rang true. I got to sleep in until my stomach starved me out and into the dining room.

"Are you alright, Felicia? Do you feel ill?" I ask her. She drops her fork and looks up, startled.

"H-huh? Oh! Um, yes. I'm fine. I just...didn't sleep very well." She picks up her fork again and doesn't make eye contact.

A brief glance and a nod from Flora, who has stopped eating, confirms it. In the earlier days of her service to me, Felicia got into a lot of trouble for lying about accidentally destroying plates, vases, and other things with her clumsiness. Years of experience have trained me to easily see through her lies. Still, I'm not sure what is making her feel so down.

"Please be honest with us, sister. What's bothering you?" asks Flora, who has set down her utensils and turned to face her twin.

"I-I said I'm fine!" she stammers angrily. Felicia gets up from the table and briskly walks out of the building, leaving her unfinished breakfast behind.

Whatever is bothering her must be worse than I thought. I turn to Flora, who is still stunned by her sister's outburst. "Any idea what's bothering her?"

She slowly recovers and shakes her head. "I...I didn't see her yesterday, except in the morning. She seemed fine two days ago. I assume the cause of her distress must be from the ambush yesterday." Ah, right. Oboro did mention something like that in the hospital, I think.

I sigh, taking my turn to poke around some eggs. "That's the thing...I don't know why that's the case. Nobody died, and she already knows I can shrug off almost any injury without trouble."

"I'll go and try to calm her down," Flora says, gathering up her empty plate and Felicia's unfinished one. "I'll let you know if I find anything out."

"I've got to go and take care of some things with the blacksmith, but after that I'll see if I can find her, too. I'd bet I'm at least partially to blame for this," I say, cleaning up my own end of the table.

Flora bows politely and takes all the collected plates back towards the kitchen. I brush off some stray crumbs and start making my way towards the exit. Before I can even reach the door, however, a blonde princess latches on to my arm and starts talking excitedly.

"Corrin! Are you done with breakfast?"

I give her a quick hug and she releases my arm. "Yes, Princess Clingy. How are you?"

She frowns and sticks her tongue out at me but instantly resumes her cheery attitude. "I'm good! Really good, actually. Breakfast was great, we should have pancakes more often! Oh, and there's something I want to ask you!"

"Oh yeah? I have to get to the armory. Tell me along the way." She nods and happily hops around as we walk. Well, as I walk and she skips.

Honestly, her boundless energy puts even me to shame sometimes. Where does she _get_ it all?

* * *

Well, that certainly didn't go well.

Elise wants me to start practicing music with her and Flora again.

Her request caught me off-guard, to say the least.

The emotions those memories bring up are unbearably bitter. Gods, why now? Why is she bringing _that_ up? No. No, no, no. I'm not going to think about this right now.

Still, her pouting face before she walked off is perfectly clear in my mind. "I'm not going to give up!" she huffed. Knowing her, she really isn't going to give up. She'll pester me endlessly until I submit to her demands.

Something else to look forward to in the mornings.

"Damn it," I mutter under my breath.

"Oh, Prince Corrin!" I look up from my inner turmoil to see a familiar young man saluting at me. I guess I was so caught up in my head that I didn't notice I'd made it to the blacksmith's. I swallow, trying to force my uncomfortable thoughts away for the time being.

"Morning, Silas," I greet my retainer. Silas isn't wearing his usual heavy black armor, instead opting for a simple white and brown shirt. His ever present cowlick, however, remains. "Are you assigned to the blacksmith today?"

He goes back to an eased position and nods. "That I am. I wasn't sure why they chose me for this, but it turns out I'm really just supposed to supervise and keep guard."

"How are you doing? Recovered already?" I ask. As I recall, Silas was shot with an arrow...

"I didn't have any serious wounds in the first place. It barely took an hour to get healed up." He glances at the piece of paper I'm pulling out of my pocket. "After what happened yesterday, I imagine this building is going to get pretty busy. I assume you're bringing some work orders?"

"Mhm. Now that we know that the enemy does actually have competent forces, we need to ensure all of our own equipment is up to scratch. A sharper sword..."

Silas smirks and finishes the saying. "A stronger shield. Anything to preserve a soldier's life." Silas takes the orders and heads inside to hand it off to one of the actual blacksmiths. Crossing my arms above my head, I contemplate using the castle's core to expand the blacksmith building. Using the core takes a lot of focus, though...I'm not sure I'm in a good mind for that right now.

"Something wrong?" Silas has come back out and must have noticed my frown.

"Eh...yeah. Nothing you need to worry about, though." He frowns, but nods. "Hey, let's have a quick practice duel. You can help me take my mind off it."

"What, right now? I'm kind of on the job..." he says sheepishly.

"And I'm kind of your boss. Get some practice swords and let's go!" I counter.

He rolls his eyes, but complies. Silas heads back into the armory and soon comes back out with some wooden practice swords. He tosses one to me and we take up our stances in the grass to the side of the blacksmith's.

"Ready?" I challenge, cocking an eyebrow.

"I've been practicing for this," Silas says, grinning slyly.

"Well, your attitudes certainly changed fast. All that time you spend with Luna must be wearing off on you!" He laughs as he makes the first move, lunging at me. I leap backwards out of his range and swipe at his body from above. He does not attempt to parry like I thought he would, and instead quickly hops to the side and lunges at me again. I barely manage to twist my offhand around in time and knock his sword off-target with my fist. However, Silas uses the momentum from his lunge and charges into me, knocking me down with a tackle. I try to recover, but Silas is faster, and taps my throat with his sword before I can scramble up.

"Hah! Gotcha!" he says, grinning.

"Caught me off guard," I grumble. "When did you get so fast?" He offers a hand up, which I take.

"I told you, I've been practicing. Been working really hard on my agility. Luna helped a lot, actually." Silas rolls his shoulders and takes a few steps back, assuming his combat stance again. "Sparring with her has really helped my speed. Figured I could get at least one easy win out of you."

"Well, one is all you're getting!" I make the initiative this time, giving my legs some extra dragon power to close the gap faster than he would expect. It's _his_ turn to be caught by unexpected speed! I rush at Silas, preparing to sweep low and knock out his legs-but a force hits my own, and I fall into the dirt face first. Silas chuckles as he taps his sword on my head.

" _And_ I figured you'd get mad that I caught you off-guard, so I was expecting you to try to outspeed me."

"Clever dastard," I mutter as roll over. Silas offers a hand again, but I ignore it and kick myself off the ground. Something feels warm in my mouth...I must have bit myself when I fell. I spit out the blood and assume my stance once more. He's _not_ beating me again.

Neither of us goes for the initiative, so I start slowly pacing forward and circling him.

"Uh...Corrin?" Silas sounds like he wants to ask me something. I ignore it. He grimaces and starts pacing away from me. I decide to go for a deceptive strategy. I dash forward and swing low, but I feint and hold my swing back. Silas falls for it. As he brings his sword to parry, I whirl around and bring my sword into his side. As he grimaces and stumbles backwards in pain, I rush back in and try to sweep his legs from behind, aiming to knock him onto his back.

But Silas regains his balance far faster than I anticipated and drops his sword. Astounded, I hesitate for less than a second-but it was long enough. Silas grabs my exposed leg with both his hands and pulls, dragging me onto the ground.

How did he recover so _fast_?

"Hells bells, Corrin! What's got into you?" he asks, bending over to catch his breath. "Why-"

" **HOW!?** " I bark, slamming my fist into the ground. It was much louder than I expected. Surprisingly, there's no pain. I quickly look away from Silas' stunned expression down at my fist...

It's a dragon's fist. It even left a tiny crater in the dirt.

I freeze.

My hand morphed on its own. That's not possible...

Neither of us says a word. Nothing happens - I don't feel panic, anger, or fear. I can't think of anything.

The only indication that any times passes at all is our exhaled breaths in the chilly morning air. Finally, after what feels like minutes, my brain finally starts to work again. I clumsily get back to my feet, Silas still silently dumbfounded at my burst of outrage. I gingerly hold my right, scaly hand with my left, human one. I stare at it as I try to release the dragon's grip.

But it doesn't work. My hand remains draconic.

"Hey...are you...?" Silas finally speaks. I don't want to stick around to hear what he says.

So I run. I run away like a stupid child, maintaining a death grip on my hand the whole time.

* * *

It was fifteen minutes until my hand went back to normal. Well, that's my best guess, anyway. I'm not sure how long I spent running and gliding around until I finally felt safe enough to stop moving. It wasn't until a few minutes later that I realized where I was-on the highest branches of the elder tree, hugging my knees to my chest.

How pathetic. If only my soldiers knew how easily their fearsome dragon prince broke.

It can't be happening. This is impossible. I tamed the dragon! We are one and the same now, there is only one Corrin!

So why did I feel control slipping away?

"Damn it!" I shout out and slam my fist into the tree. It hurts - proof that it's human again.

If only there was a healer I could consult or some medicine I could take to make it all better. Rainbow might have known. I clutch my hand gingerly and try to massage the pain out. But Rainbow is gone, and I am all alone. Nobody can tell me what's wrong. Just need to calm down and think this through.

"I'm just going to have to wait and see what happens," I sigh. "If I'm due for another fit, then I need to either isolate myself or find my maids. I haven't felt any other symptoms...for the time being, I need to stay as relaxed as possible." Getting agitated always makes it worse. Being relaxed has never _prevented_ a fit, but it did make the symptoms easier to identify.

I grip the dragonstone in my pocket firmly. I really don't know how these things work. Looking back, I really should have asked Rainbow about it. Maybe I can trick myself into thinking it is working.

Actually, wait a minute. What would happen if I transformed into full-dragon mode? Could that prevent the fit from occurring? Or perhaps I would berserk instantly upon transforming? That would be much worse. Or perhaps the transformations are not the cause of the fits, but an effect of them?

"Bah," I swear under my breath and let go of the dragonstone. There's no point theorizing about it. Let's take a walk, maybe it will help. I start making my way towards the water garden in the castle's center.

I wonder if Azura will be there.

* * *

The water garden is unusually still today. After pacing around for a few laps, I found that not only is Azura not here, nobody is here except for me. I suppose it makes sense. With the castle on high alert after yesterday's incident, there shouldn't be anyone lazing in the garden.

...what does that make me then?

"I'm not lazing," I grumble to myself. I stare at my reflection in the water. It's still me...Corrin the mostly-human. I lean in a little closer to inspect my face. Two red eyes blink at me as I look at myself. As far as I know, my ears are the only permanently draconic feature that I have. They grew into points during one of my growth spurts years ago and never changed back.

Satisfied that everything is intact, I sit down in a shady spot under a large, unfamiliar type of tree. Willow, I think it's called. Apparently, most of Nohr is too dry to allow these trees to grow. The long, narrow leaves make an unusual sight, but with how far the leaves come down, it's like nature is providing a quiet little sanctuary for me. The wind gently ripples across the water and swishes through my hiding spot. The tranquil atmosphere of this place has calmed me down, and I sprawl out on my back as I think.

"It's been at least thirty minutes..." I say to myself. "I haven't felt anything else. There's been no other signs, not so much as a twitch. I think it's safe to assume no transformation is coming." All of my transformations before have had growing signs as much as a week ahead of time, or were provoked by very strong emotions. There weren't any signs of this, so that leaves emotion. Did my duel with Silas really get me worked up to such a degree?

...I did shout and slam my fist. I can't remember exactly what I was thinking, but it is possible...but why? That alone surely couldn't have been enough to set me off. And I've been in worse situations and didn't lose control over my morphing!

I groan and flop over, face pressed against the cool grass. "What the hell _was_ that?" I ask nobody, voice muffled by the ground.

I roll around on the grass for a bit. Then, an idea strikes me. Maybe it was residual? Pent up stress, or something? Can that happen? Come to think of it...when was the last time I worked on relieving stress? I never had a chance to address it during the last few months. They were so incredibly frantic and busy, I didn't have time to even consider it. It does seem possible... I can't really remember any similar instances of this in the past, though. Uncontrolled transformations always wrecked my short term memory.

"Ah, wait!" I snap my fingers. "I should just ask Felicia or Flora about it! They know more about my fits than anyone else. If they remember the circumstances of them, I might be able to find a connection!"

"Is something the matter, my lord?" I didn't expect to hear any voices other than my own out here!

"Wha? Who?" I spin around to see Suzukaze, who bows. "Ah...how much did you hear of that?"

"Only that you need to speak to your maids, which is convenient, since I am here to request that you come to the castle's core at once." I hope he didn't see me rolling around on the grass like a little boy. Though, even if he did, he'd probably lie about it for my sake...

"Is there a problem?" I ask, sitting up.

Kaze considers this for a moment. "There is no emergency, but a _potential_ problem has been noticed with the core. The details are beyond me. Your maids, as well as Prince Leo, are waiting there."

I nod. "Alright. Let's go now." Kaze nods and we start walking towards the heart of the castle.

* * *

A few minutes and one brisk walk later and I'm standing in the most secure location in the castle. The castle was built on top of a hill overlooking the Sea of Nohr. The castle's core - a levitating crystal of tremendous arcane power - was built into the southern edge of the castle, closer to the sea, to provide it the most defensible position. Surrounded by sturdy stone walls, the building was intended to be used as a miniature palace and throne room. It also serves as a final bastion should the castle ever be breached. The castle's builders never finished the fortifications, however. One of the first things I used the core for was the construction of this very building.

In the early days, I was concerned that I could be the only person capable of operating the core. Thankfully, I was proven wrong. As it turns out, all it takes to use the core is magical skill or Dragon Vein. And since Nyx had dedicated herself to studying the enemy, Leo took up the position of 'core inspector'. The crystal that composes the core is an entirely alien substance - Leo theorizes that it is likely a material found only in Valla - and somehow not only stores magical energy, but _generates_ it at incredible volumes. So far, it has stubbornly resisted Leo's attempts at understanding it.

Perhaps I'm being called here today because that's changed.

I clear my throat and address the people assembled before me. "So, what's the issue?"

Felicia, Flora, and Leo all had their attention focused on the crystal and turn to greet me. Jakob, who had already noticed me, bows quickly. A few of Leo's assistant mages bow and scurry out of the room.

"Well met, brother. Before you ask, one, yes, I have made progress in understanding the core. And two, I've discovered something about it that could lead to a serious problem if left unchecked." Leo's face is composed as always.

"Straight to business, then. What have you learned?" I step closer and look up at the crystal. It hums quietly, eternally rotating in the air. If you stand close enough, you can feel the vibrations in the air.

"I'll be frank. I still have no idea _how_ the core generates such incredible amounts of energy. What I _have_ learned is how much energy the core can produce in a day, as well as how much energy certain usages of the core require." Leo can't help but let a small smile through. It must have been quite a challenging accomplishment to learn that.

"Well done, Prince Leo!" Flora softly chimes. Felicia nervously echoes her.

"Thank you," Leo says, finally managing to stifle his proud smile. "The long answer is rather technical and magical. You never truly pursued the arcane, but I will explain it to your more magically-inclined maids later, if you care to learn it from them. For the sake of explanation, I'll say that the castle generates ten 'energy' per day. As for usage...maintaining our protective field takes about two a day. So far, that's the only constant drain I've noticed."

"What about other uses?" I ask.

"Other uses vary with the difficulty of the task. Recall how I asked you to expand the prison last week? I was testing to see how much energy it consumed. As it turns out, about one 'energy'."

I nod in understanding. It was a relatively small expansion.

"Refining raw materials is a surprisingly efficient use of energy. We should continue to process lumber, ore, food, and etcetera, with the core's power when possible..." Leo goes on for a while, explaining the different energy expenditures of the core's many uses. Apparently, terraforming is far and away the most expensive task. It took an incredible amount of power when I reshaped a section of the shoreline a few days ago, at Leo's request.

I can't even imagine how much power was required for that initial burst of creation when I activated the core for the first time. It must have been charging power for centuries!

Flora and Jakob seem to be grasping the finer points of Leo's explanations. I was never especially skilled at magic, and his words start to pass through me. I notice that Felicia is struggling to pay attention, too. Eventually, Leo clears his throat to get my attention again.

"Your attention, brother, this is the problematic part," he says, slightly offended that I wasn't completely listening.

"Sorry. Go ahead, I'm listening," I say, slightly embarrassed.

"The problem lies with whirlpool transportation. I have to assume that the protective field that the core generates somehow repels Anankos' attempts to send wights right into our base. Either that, or a method exists and Anankos does not know of it. I cannot imagine any reason why he would hold back if he had such an advantage. I recommend we make determining the answer our highest priority."

"I see...if Anankos can send wights right into the heart of our castle, our resistance would be over in a day." That's a truly terrifying thought. It would make sense to assume that the field would repel unauthorized whirlpool attempts...but Leo is right. We need to know for sure, and sooner rather than later.

Jakob cuts in. "So we need to either make sure Anankos cannot, or that he never finds out of the possibility that he can. Is that correct?" He asks Leo.

"It is."

I roll my shoulders and speak up. "You have my authority to gather more mages to research this. I'm not at all experienced, so I'll leave this to you."

Leo gives another slight smile. "You read my mind."

"I do have one suggestion, though."

"Oh? What's that?" Leo seems very intrigued.

"You already know we have a captive wight...collaborate with Nyx. Try sending it through a whirlpool that would lead here. Then we would know if the field repels undead traveling through a whirlpool."

"That's...actually quite genius. Impressive, Corrin." Now he seems a little embarrassed that he didn't think of that.

"Well, if we're all done here..." I glance towards Flora, who catches my gaze with a curious tilt of her head.

Suzukaze, who was silently standing watch at the exit, comes closer and speaks up. "There is one more matter, my lord. It should be quite bit shorter and less complicated than this one. If you will allow me to take you to the war room?"

I groan internally. "Fine. But, Flora, will you come with me? There's something important I need to talk with you about."

She curtsies politely. "Of course."

* * *

Unsurprisingly, the war room was bursting with activity. I really need to get around to expanding it one of these days.

Xander, Ryoma, and several of their officers were reviewing some plans spread out across a table when I came in. A group of soldiers salute me as I enter, and I immediately realize what this is about. I silently criticize myself for feeling reluctant to come.

"Welcome back, little Prince," says Xander.

"Well met, Brother!" says Ryoma.

Each prince greets me in his own way. Wait, is that...? Is Xander _smiling?_ In the war room? And with his counterpart here? "You two seem to be getting along well. Or is the news just that good?" I ask, amazement shifting into smugness.

Ryoma nods and speaks up. "Your...Nohrian brother is a surprisingly agreeable man. That, and I am quite impressed with the results you've brought about."

Xander shifts his arms behind his back, smiling proudly. "Even I'm impressed, little prince. I can scarcely believe how much you've accomplished in a mere four months."

"That's high praise. Thank you both." I put my palms together and bow very slightly, a habit I picked up on the road with Azura. A symbolic gesture of gratitude that the many monks in the Sea of Nohr practice. "So, then. Have you already debriefed our scouts?"

Xander shakes his head. "Not yet. We agreed to wait for you." Ryoma nods in confirmation.

Xander turns to one of the assembled soldiers. "Now we can begin. Scout Captain Siegbert, your report, if you will."

Nohr sure does have a lot of Siegberts.

One of the soldiers steps forward from their line and salutes. "Sir! Our scouting mission was a success and completed without incident. As ordered, the surrounding fifty kilometers of the castle have been surveyed. All notable bodies of water have been identified and marked on our maps." The soldier reaches into his satchel and hands Xander a map, which he splays out on a nearby table. Ryoma and I step forward to examine it. A few red circles dot an an otherwise ordinary map of the area.

"There's not as many locations as I expected. This may turn out to be easier than we thought," Ryoma offers, rubbing his chin.

"Indeed. One to the east, two in the south, and three in the north. If we send out two teams, they should be finished in less than a week." Xander steps back from the maps and turns to me. "I understand that mages are in short supply at the moment. Given that, I'm going to lead one of the teams-we should use dragon vein as a substitute power to destroy these bodies of water."

Destroying a body of water...what an unusual task. An extremely important one, however, given our enemies' ability to send undead soldiers through the water. Mercifully, the ocean is immune to the power of the whirlpools.

Ryoma nods his agreement. "A wise decision, Prince Xander. I would volunteer to lead the other, but I have a pressing concern back in Shirasagi..." He trails off.

"We'll give give the job to Takumi," I interrupt. "He's itching for something to do after the ambush."

Ryoma frowns. "Is he not still wounded?"

"He won't be able to fight, but you don't need both arms to use dragon vein," I say. Ryoma continues to frown, but nods his acceptance. "Alright then. I'll leave the logistics of the matter to you two, unless you have further need of me."

"That should be fine. Be well, Corrin." Xander nods at me and then turns back to the table. Ryoma claps me on the shoulder and joins him. Suzukaze and Flora follow me as I leave the building and go down the stone steps back out into the castle courtyard. The setting sun is terribly bright and I shield my eyes as we descend the steps.

"Suzukaze, you're free to do as you like for the rest of the day. I need to talk privately with Flora," I say.

"Understood. Be well, my lord." Kaze quickly bows once we reach the bottom of the steps and walks off towards the forge.

I wonder if Silas is still there.

I turn to Flora. "Something extremely unexpected happened to me today. I don't know if it's necessarily bad, but it could be a serious problem, and I think you're one of the only people who could give me advice about it. Join me for dinner?" She blinks, eyes wide at my sudden seriousness, but nods and gives her agreement. We head off towards the mess hall.

* * *

Although I was very hesitant to try tonight's stew after the complete abomination that Felicia made last week (she's still apologizing for it), I had to admit it was quite good this time. "Do you know who's on kitchen duty tonight?" I ask Flora. She puts her finger to her chin as she thinks.

"I believe it was supposed to be Lady Nyx, but as she is occupied with critical tasks, it was passed to Niles," she says.

"Huh. This is surprisingly good, don't you think? Maybe I'll compliment him about it later," I say.

Flora seems to almost shudder at the mention at the mention of Niles. "Despite my opinion of the man, I do admit his cooking is unexpectedly adequate..."

"Not a fan? Did he do something to you?" I ask, and then mentally slap myself. Of course he did, he's Niles. And Flora is a rather sensitive woman... He's going to regret it if he went too far with her.

She shakes her head. "It was nothing I couldn't handle. The ruffian learned to keep his distance after I gave him a good freezing."

I laugh at the image. I hope his expression was a good one at the shock of becoming an ice cube after going for seemingly easy prey. "Well done, Flora! That's quite an improvement for you." She blushes slightly and smiles proudly at the compliment. "But seriously, don't do that to other people again. It's dangerous."

Flora huffs. "I was very precise! Well..." She breaks eye contact awkwardly. "Mostly precise...I doubt I caused any lasting damage." She sighs. "But yes, you are right. I've grown too accustomed to freezing you."

I put down my spoon and dab my mouth with a napkin. "Actually, that's related to what I wanted to talk to you about." Flora mimics me and gives me her full attention. A quick glance of my surroundings confirm that we are isolated well enough in the corner of the dining hall to speak without concern. I take a deep breath and look at her.

"Well, I'll start with this. Flora, you know me better than anyone. And that's not an exaggeration. Your sister is a close second, but you are one of the only people who completely understand me. You've been with me for half of my life. When you first came to the castle, you hated me." Flora's eyes widen and it looks like she wants to interrupt, so I shake my head and cut her off.

"I know you did, and you had every reason to. But despite the circumstances of our introduction, we eventually managed to become close friends. You've always been there to keep me safe-and everyone around us safe from me. You can't imagine the number of times I've silently praised your ice magic for being such an effective tool at pacifying my...condition. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have you," I break out into a smile as I wrap up my impromptu speech. I hadn't exactly planned it, but I might have subconsciously tried to help Flora's low self-esteem.

Flora is almost completely still for a few seconds, wide-eyed and surprised, until she shakily dabs at the corners of her eyes with a napkin. I blink. "Are you crying?" I ask, stupidly. She stifles a sniffle.

"That was the nicest...barrage of things anyone has ever said to me," Flora smiles at me, eyes sparkling. That's two for two nights now! Maybe I should go for a third tomorrow?

"Don't get too carried away with it. We can't have you freezing the whole dining hall," I tease.

She giggles as she regains her composure. "What...what brought that on? That wasn't all you wanted to tell me, surely?"

"Well, no. I just thought you should know it. Though, it did have a point, being to let you know that I value your opinion. So, um..." I scratch my head. I hadn't exactly considered how to word this. "This is going to sound strange, but...do I seem...human, to you?"

She blinks.

She blinks again. "Come again?" she asks, head tilted.

I wave my hands in distress. "I mean, can you see any unusual symptoms." My voice becomes hushed. "Anything... draconic. And not just physical, but behavioral, too."

Flora leans in closer to examine me, and then she gasps softly and quiets her voice as well. "Now that you mention it...how long have your eyes been like that?"

It's my turn to blink in confusion. "Been like what?"

"Your pupils...they're vertical," she whispers.

Oh. I have a dragon's eyes.

"How in the damn did I not notice that? And how did nobody else notice?" I curse under my breath.

"Nobody mentioned it in the war room. Perhaps it just happened. When did you last see your eyes?"

I drum on my head with my fingers as I think. "Today, only a few hours ago. I saw my reflection in the water gardens. I'm certain I had normal eyes."

"Perhaps you were overcome with emotion?" Flora leans across the table and inspects my face and ears. The process is too familiar to me to cause any embarrassment, though I can't help but notice how incredibly soft her hands are. Finishing her quick investigation, she leans back onto the dining bench. "No obvious physical indications," she says. "Is there anything else? Has your tail come out? Can you freely morph your fingers?" She snaps her fingers. "Oh, and show me your teeth."

I open wide and she quickly looks at my mouth before shaking her head. No dragon fangs, then.

"No tail," I say. "Although that's never come out until the very end." I hold out a hand and look at it, focusing intently on the sensations as I force power into it. "It...tingles a little, and feels warmer than usual, but nothing incredibly out of the ordinary," I tell her.

Flora frowns and considers this. "If there are no physical symptoms, other than your eyes which you didn't even notice, how did you think to come discuss this with me? Something serious must have happened."

Sharp as a blade, that Flora. "You're correct. Something happened this morning. It wasn't a fit. It was more of a...flicker. Just for a second...I lost control. My hand morphed on its own, and I couldn't turn it back when I noticed."

"What were you doing at the time?"

"I was dueling with Silas."

"And your emotions at the time?" I take a drink of water to buy myself some time as I reflect.

"I was trying to distract myself from unpleasant thoughts. So discomfort, and then anticipation and excitement. Silas was a lot faster than I remembered and landed a quick hit on me. So, shock and surprise. Then he beat me two more times. Soundly, too. It made me...angry."

"Can you be more specific? Describe the anger for me."

I rub my chin as I try to recall exactly what I was thinking. "I was… offended, I guess. I suppose I might have grown so accustomed to real, brutal combat, I forgot some things about fighting for practice. And I seriously underestimated him. I felt like... I don't know, like I was supposed to be invincible." I sigh and continue. "And he ruined that self-image by crushing me so badly. That seems like a reasonable explanation. Why couldn't I remember all this earlier?" I lament.

Flora lets out a breath. "Your spontaneous transformations were always brought on by strong emotions. Wounded pride coupled with unpleasant thoughts and anger could certainly be enough to set you off. And they always wrecked havoc on your memory. It's not surprising you can only recall the specific feelings now that you've had time to cool off." Flora nods to herself, gathering her thoughts. "From what I can discern, you do not seem to be in any immediate danger of a fit. However, I would insist that I accompany you for tomorrow, in case another 'flicker' occurs."

"Thank you. I was going to ask that, anyway." I stand up, gathering up my finished dishes. "I'm not sure what would be worse. If this is a freak incident that's just going to keep me on edge, or old habits resurfacing..."

Flora looks right at me, full of determination. "I will do everything I can to prevent that. The dragon's power is your choice, now. Not your curse."

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere far away...

Dust settles through the musty air. Undisturbed for years, the ruined temple is utterly still and motionless, its only occupant having long since abandoned the prospect of movement. Sickly, pale moonlight filters in through holes in the roof of the crumbling building. Wispy clouds silently float through the unnaturally colored sky. The stars are dim and far between. Quietly, almost inaudible even to the speaker, whispering could be heard from beneath a pile of rubble.

"The arrogance of it all..." it said. "The overconfidence of the lesser races never ceases to amaze."

The whispering continued, growing louder into a tone not unlike that of a child sullenly cursing his parents. "Hmpf. Do they truly believe they were right? That they knew best?"

"No. No, no, no!" The voice grew louder, bolstering its confidence with volume. "They were wrong. They were _wrong!_ They will always be wrong." Then, for the first time in years, the voice tried to move. Slowly, at first. It was almost pitiful how the boulders and shattered pillars stubbornly refused to release their prisoner.

"How unbearably foolish!" The struggling stopped with a _thunk_ , and the temple was still once again. "They interfered. They thought they were right, but they were wrong. That is why we..." the voice trailed off. "We? No, I. There is no we anymore. I left myself, didn't I?" The voice sounds almost...longing.

"That was wrong, too. And like all the wrong things, I must _correct_ it. I succeed where others don't. I see what no other does! Even when it hurts!" The voice's sorrow was tainted with fury. "Why does no one listen!? Why does no one come? Why must it hurt so much? Why must we wait here, entombed alive in rocks!?" The voice roared and raged at the warped, unnatural night sky, shouting its grievances until it was exhausted.

"Oh. Right." The voice grew deathly quiet once more. "There is no we anymore. He left..."

The air became as still and silent as it was before, as if nothing had happened.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Just a quick reminder that this is the final chapter of this series. If it feels a little anticlimactic to end it here, it's because I never intended for it to be an isolated, fully fleshed-out story. More on this at the end.

Enjoy!

True to her promise, Flora came to my room not long after sunrise to wake me up. We chatted a bit on our way to the mess hall - mostly discussing the fact that Felicia was not present and that Flora had not gotten a chance to talk to her yesterday. We decided that we would search for her after breakfast. Despite the circumstances with her sister, Flora seemed to be in quite a good mood, standing tall and walking with confidence. It felt like she was proud that I was relying on her again.

Waiting by the mess hall's entrance was a frantic Silas, scanning the approaching crowd with a grimace. When he spotted me, he immediately beelined towards me and spoke up in a concerned tone. "Ah, there you are! I was hoping to intercept you." I contain my own grimace and nod, gesturing Silas to step away from the walking paths so we can speak more privately. Flora follows us, keeping an eye that nobody gets too close to overhear us.

"So..." Silas starts, rubbing the back of his head and looking down. "I'm not sure if you're aware of this yet, but we apparently had an audience yesterday. I'm not sure how much they saw, but it probably included your...uh..."

"Outburst," I finish.

"Outburst," he repeats weakly. "About that...what happened? Was that a sign of a fit?"

How very like him. He immediately moves to the problem of someone else, ignoring how I treated him.

"It doesn't seem like it was." Silas looks puzzled. "Well, basically, my hand transformed on its own and I couldn't get it to turn back. That's why I panicked and ran away. Flora is shadowing me today in case anything drastic happens."

"Ah...wow. That's could be pretty serious, huh?"

"It could be. Regardless, I apologize for my behavior yesterday-"

"No need," Silas cuts me off and shakes his head. "It shocked me, is all. Haven't seen that part of you in some time. Won't happen again." Of course, he is referring to his own stunned lack of a reaction, rather than my angry outburst...

Damn you, Silas. How can you be so selfless? You're actually making me feel worse about this!

"Are you sure you aren't a monk?" I grumble under my breath.

"What?"

"Nevermind, forget it. Anyway, about our audience..."

Silas sighs. "Right, someone saw us and apparently there are rumors going around now about some kind of incident between us. Most people seem to think we were just working out some dispute with a duel and it got heated."

Flora steps closer and interjects. "It is probably best to keep it that way. We should keep the true nature of this quiet."

"Why's that?" asks Silas.

"Not everyone has the same astounding loyalty that you do," I say bitterly. "There are a lot of people in this castle that are scared of me. I can't appear unreliable."

"Ah...right..." Silas rubs his head, embarrassed.

"That said, we're going to run some experiments today," I say, nodding at Flora. "Your help would be appreciated." Earlier in the morning, Flora suggested that I test my powers today-under supervision, of course-and had already contacted Azura, who immediately agreed to help. With Azura's pacifying song and Flora's ice magic, they should have no trouble containing me in case of the worst.

Silas nods with determination. "Of course. When?"

"Meet us at the north gate at noon."

"Understood. Enjoy your breakfast, then." Silas salutes and walks off.

Flora and I share a look. "Such unflinching dedication to others...I believe I understand your comment about him being a monk," she says. I roll my eyes, and we head into the mess hall.

* * *

Leo once told me that the only thing that travels faster than light is bad news.

All the quick, awkward glances I'm receiving during today's breakfast lead me to believe he was right. It's uncomfortable, but hardly unfamiliar. I am no stranger to such looks, and I will gladly take them over terrified grimaces and hasty whispering any day.

After taking two plates of pancakes-Flora's favorite breakfast-and some fruit, we sit down at a corner table and do our best to ignore the looks. We both munch quietly for a few minutes, enjoying the meal without conversation. People continue to filter in and out of the mess hall. Some scarf their food down as quickly as possible and rush out, probably off to fulfill their early duties. Others stretch and yawn, taking their time with their meal. I get so absorbed with my people watching that I almost miss the grinning idiot approaching me, his own blue haired companion behind.

"Well..." Takumi plops down next to me, putting his arm on my shoulder. "Morning, bro!"

Oboro greets us politely, which Flora reciprocates to the two of them.

"Morning..." I answer cautiously. Takumi is rarely so cheerful in the mornings. I'm not sure if his smile is predatory. Gods know I have enough of that with Niles.

"Oh, don't look so concerned! I'm honestly just in a great mood today," he says, clapping me on the shoulder before scooting away some distance. Oboro sets down some plates of food for the two of them before joining us, sitting next to Flora.

"What's the occasion?" I ask, fearful of the possible answers...

Takumi takes a drink of something-probably coffee, his latest addiction-before laughing. 'Well, here I was, moping around this morning, right? All down and wounded and crap. But then, your man Suzukaze walks in with special orders for me!" He laughs again. "For me, the guy who can't even cut his own breakfast!" Surprisingly, his tone is not self-depreciating at all. I glance over to his food tray-all of it has already been cut and diced into small parts. Oboro probably did it for him.

I blink. "Was...was it really that surprising? Or funny?"

Takumi takes another drink of coffee and sighs, his mood flattening somewhat. "Look, I've been in a weird mode lately. I don't handle being helpless very well. I mean, it isn't the first time I've been hurt and unable to do much, but..." Takumi trails off, unsure of himself. "I don't know, it just really struck me, is all. That you thought of me for the task."

"It makes sense, doesn't it? Gives you something to do, keeps our valuable mages free to do other work."

He shrugs. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I don't really get why it struck me as so funny, but hey. I'm not gonna question it."

"Well, whatever. Glad you're feeling so upbeat." I turn to Oboro, who gives a hybrid smirk-smile. "How are you today?"

"Today has been kind to me as well. I slept unusually well...I feel prepared for anything!" She beams proudly, puffing out her chest. "How about you?"

I chew another bite of food as I consider. Today's certainly not without its flaws. My resurgent draconic issues could be a massive problem. But, despite that...I smile at her. "I'm feeling optimistic, too." Our eyes meet for a little too long and I look away awkwardly. Oboro stifles a giggle as she turns to her food. Flora seems amused and arches an eyebrow at me. Thankfully, Takumi was too absorbed in his food to notice.

Clearing my throat to regain my composure, I speak up again. "So, then...when are you off, Takumi?"

He nods and swallows his food. "Pretty soon, actually. Need to eat fast."

Flora speaks up. "Are you going to accompany him, Lady Oboro?"

Oboro blushes. "Ah...you don't need to call me that. Just Oboro is fine." Flora nods politely. "And, no. I won't be going with him. He asked me not to, actually."

Flora perks up. "Really? That seems somewhat unusual."

Takumi turns to Flora. "I figure it would be a waste of her talents. I mean, I just need to destroy some ponds. Nothing much she could do to help."

I frown. "But you _did_ just get ambushed the other day."

He shrugs. "I was careless. Besides, I'm not going alone this time."

I look at Oboro. "I'm honestly surprised you're fine with this."

She smirks. "Believe me, he learned his lesson." Takumi cringes off to the side, suddenly becoming very interested in his food.

"Well..." Takumi stands up, stretching. "I'd better be off then, see you!"

Oboro and Flora laugh softly as he rushes away. What a strange role reversal-the retainer in control of the royal.

Then again, it _is_ the 'Demon Faced Lancer'. I've heard rumors of Oboro's terrifying alter-ego. I consider myself lucky that I have yet to encounter it.

I catch Flora whispering something to Oboro out of the corner of my eye. Then Flora stands up as well, smiling oddly. "I just remembered something important. I shall rejoin you later, Prince Corrin." She curtsies, gathers up her dishes, and leaves. I don't think she even finished her food. I wonder what she forgot?

"Really, though, I'm not worried. I think it's the perfect thing for him right now," Oboro says after a sip of her tea. "His mood really did improve immensely when he received those orders. That wasn't an act."

I smile. "I'm glad to hear it had such an effect. Maybe I'll have him do more menial tasks in the future."

She laughs, then frowns. "Although...I am concerned about something else."

"What's that?"

She is quiet for a moment.

"You," she says.

I grimace. "Rumor spread that fast, huh?"

She shakes her head. "No, that isn't it. I was in the forge yesterday-I saw the whole thing."

That catches me off guard. "You know how to forge?"

"Yes, somewhat. I picked it up in my early days at Shirasagi." She frowns again. "But that isn't the point. Are you...okay?"

"I think so," I say. "At least for the moment. I don't know how you interpreted that whole scene, but it wasn't me just losing my temper." I take a sip of my coffee. "My hand morphed on its own and I couldn't make it turn back. That shocked me senseless, so I panicked and ran off."

She blinks. "That...that isn't normal for you, right?"

"Yes. I hadn't had even a single hint of an uncontrolled transformation for months prior. The fact that this happened is...very troubling."

"Which is why you have your maid Flora with you," she says, sighing. "In case of another incident."

"Right." Both of us are still and solemn for a minute. Neither of us touch our food.

"I don't even know what to say to that," Oboro says, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "I wish I could do something to help."

"Well, there isn't much _anyone_ can do about it. We just have to wait and react to whatever happens, I'm afraid."

She looks at me strangely. "Are you afraid?" she asks quietly.

As Oboro's question sinks in, I notice that I feel unusually calm. As I bask in the odd feeling, a curious idea strikes me. I smile at Oboro, and answer her with a question of my own.

"Do you want to hear a story?"

"A story? What about?"

I smile and lean back into a more relaxed position. "An old Nohrian folk tale about the Dusk Dragon. Its themes are similar to our situation, I think."

Oboro puts her food down and straightens up. "Please do."

I clear my throat. "A long, long time ago, there was a great black dragon that lived in the mountains of Nohr. His wings spanned over thirty feet, he was as tall as a house, and his roar could be heard for miles around. The dragon was looking for a new home, and one day he decided to make his roost at the top of a terribly tall mountain. At the foot of the mountain, there was a small village. The people of the village were very scared of the dragon, although he had never done anything directly to them. Whenever he would fly over, the people would cower and run for their homes.

The wise men of the village thought that the dragon had decided to live near them so he could demand tribute from them. As such, the people had regularly sent sheep and oxen up the treacherous mountain paths, guided by brave shepherds. They believed this would appease the dragon, so he would feast upon the animals and not them. The dragon, unaware of the people's fear, assumed that the villagers were giving him generous gifts. However, he felt that the people were giving him too much-as winter was drawing near, and he was preparing to hibernate. The dragon took the animals in his great talons, flew to the village, and dropped them onto the ground. He meant it as a sign of goodwill, but the animals did not survive the fall. The villagers took it as a sign of his displeasure, and their fear for him grew."

I take a sip of coffee before continuing.

"The winter was not kind to the villagers. Their sacrifices to the dragon had depleted their stores of food, and they worried if they would have enough to last through all the long, cold nights. As their stomaches growled, the fear in their hearts began to turn to frustration, and then to anger. 'Why should we have to feed the dragon?' they asked. 'We have offered what little we have, and he has rejected it. We will starve because of his greed!' they shouted. Eventually, one young man from the village stood up and said, 'Fear not! I shall climb the mountain and put an end to our troubles!' And the people cheered as he took his sword and headed off towards the dragon's mountain.

"It was a dangerous climb. The winds were freezing, the rocks were difficult to climb, and the brave hero nearly fell many times. Nevertheless, he eventually made it to the top, and approached the dragon's cave. He peered into the darkness and yelled, 'Dragon! Come and face me!'. The dragon, who had not yet fallen into his winter slumber, stepped out, and looked down at the small human. For a while, they only looked at each other, which suprised the hero greatly. He had expected the evil dragon to roar and charge at him. The hero gripped his sword, face stern and determined. The dragon's calm eyes spoke of great power and intelligence. Eventually, the human shouted against the howling wind. 'Dragon! Why have you rejected our sacrifices to you? Do you not care that we will starve this winter?'

The dragon tilted its head and blinked. And then, somehow, it spoke. Not with its mouth, but with some unknowable power. 'I know not of what you accuse me of, little human. Your people brought me gifts of animals to feed upon, but winter is nearly here, and I must sleep. I have returned the animals to you so your people may eat them, instead.'

The hero gripped his sword tighter and stared at the dragon. He wondered if he was telling the truth. Eventually, he sighed, put his sword away, and said to the dragon, 'I apologize, great one, for we have misunderstood you. My people were frightened by your appearance and offered the animals not as gifts, but sacrifices. When you returned the animals to us, it was seen as a sign of your displeasure, and we feared your wrath.'

The dragon let out a sound that mimicked a laugh. 'And you came to resolve the problem. Your bravery is admirable, human.' The dragon stepped back and stretched out his mighty wings. Before, the hero would have taken it as a sign that the dragon was going to attack, but he had learned patience. He stood his ground and continued to stare at the dragon. Then the dragon spoke again, with more power and force than before. 'You, small creature, who has come before my lair and accused me of wrongdoings...you have opened my eyes. I see now that I have misinterpreted you as you have done to me.'

A quick glance at Oboro tells me that I have her complete attention-she is spellbound by my words. The energy of the story takes a hold of me and I start gesturing with my hands, putting more volume into my words.

'Go now, brave human! Return to your people. Tell them that they need not fear me any longer. I still have some time yet before I must slumber, and I will see that my mistake is corrected.' With a mighty gust of his wings, the dragon launched himself off the mountain, and flew towards the valleys below, where many wild animals roamed. Upon his return, the hero told the people of the village that the dragon had spoken with him and had seen his mistake. The people were ashamed of their mistake, and declared that the black dragon would hence be known as Duskar, which translates literally as 'great being of dusk'.

"The man who spoke with Duskar was allegedly Siegbert the Conqueror, who would go on to unite the tribes of Nohr. Over time, Duskar became a widely renowned and even worshiped figure, who established one of the two great Dragon Empires."

Oboro nods in contemplation. "I've heard the tale of the Dawn Dragon, of course, but I'd never heard the story of the Dusk Dragon before. I certainly didn't expect I'd hear it from a Nohrian, either. The tale is quite different from what I expected..." Her eyes suddenly widen as she realizes she was getting lost in thought. "That was a great story! You make for quite a good storyteller, you know."

I grin. "I would certainly hope I'd be able to retell that one well, with how often I made my caretakers read it to me when I was little. I was obsessed with stories of dragons."

"Was that before you were aware of your powers?"

"Mhm. I still read anything I could find about dragons once I was...but for different reasons." I shake my head. "Anyway, the point of that was to emphasize the importance of a clear mind. I'm not saying that this whole conflict can be resolved by talking out a misunderstanding-"

"Wouldn't that be nice," Oboro smirks.

"Given our foe's mental state I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to convince us it was all a practical joke," I respond with my own. "But, yes. I will not let this control me."

Then I realize the irony of that statement.

"Well, mentally, at least. You know what I mean."

"I do," she says, smiling warmly.

* * *

Oboro and I chatted a while longer before parting ways. She was very interested in the legends surrounding Duskar, so I told her a few more stories. I intentionally left the last one on a cliffhanger to give myself a reason to talk to her again later. Well done, Corrin, you sly devil.

As I left the building, Flora mysteriously reappeared at my side. "Where have you been, Flora? Did you accomplish your conveniently vague task?" I ask her with a smile.

She smiles and says nothing.

"Thanks," I mumble quietly.

She tilts her head, smile growing. "Whatever are you talking about, Prince Corrin? Come along, we must hurry and find Felicia. It's nearly time to meet up."

I laugh and follow her towards her room.

We knock on the door and receive no response. Flora looks at me, as if looking for reassurance. I shrug.

"It's your room, not mine," I say.

She nods and reaches for the doorknob. It isn't locked. Flora steps inside. "Sister? Are you here?" I elect to wait in the hallway. Flora looks around before she steps back into the hall and closes the door. "She isn't here."

"Well, that's probably a good sign," I offer.

"How do you mean?"

"It means she's outside and moving around, at least. She didn't imprison herself in her room like she used to."

"That's true...still, we really don't have much time to search for her," Flora sighs.

I hear footsteps from behind, and a quiet gasp. We turn around to see Felicia, looking rather suprised and carrying a basket of freshly laundered clothes. "Oh! Um...hello..." she says nervously. "Were you looking for m-" Felicia can't finish her question as Flora lunges at her, grabbing her and pulling her into a tight hug.

"Of course we were! Where _were_ you this morning? What happened?"

"Ah...um..." Felicia stammers under her sister's assault. "Well..."

Flora lets go of her sister. "You hardly said a word to me yesterday! Will you please tell us what's going on?"

Felicia just blinks and fidgets, overwhelmed. I put my hand on Flora's shoulder and squeeze, hoping to convey that she's being too aggressive. She seems to understand and nods. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have bombarded you with questions like that."

Felicia recovers. "That's okay. You have plenty of reason to want to know..."

I finally speak up. "I have an idea of what's bothering you, but I want to hear it from you. Will you sit down and talk to us?"

After a few seconds, she gulps. "Alright." Flora opens the door and we all step inside. It's extremely obvious which side of the room belongs to which sister-one half is pristine and well-maintained and the other is chaotic and messy. Felicia sets her basket of laundry down on her bed and sits next to it. Flora sits down on her own, facing Felicia. I find an empty spot of carpet and sit down, leaning against the wall.

Felicia sighs. "I'm sorry...you shouldn't have to do this."

"Take your time," I say. "Deep breaths, and all that."

"Tell us what's bothering you," Flora says.

Felicia looks at both of us and nods. She takes a deep breath, and begins. "I've...I've just felt useless lately. Ever since you were injured in that ambush." I want to interrupt her, to tell her that she has nothing to feel bad about.

But I remain silent. She needs to get the words out on her own. That's the way Felicia always has been, and always will be.

"I know, I know," she says, as if reading my mind. "I know that we've talked about this before. But, I just look around this castle, and feel so...useless! I failed to protect you in battle, which is supposed to be my strongest point! I'm no use as a maid. I'm not good enough at magic to use the core..."

Flora's mouth opens, but Felicia doesn't let her get any words out. "I know! I know that I'm _not_ useless. I know that I couldn't really have done anything to protect Corrin from getting hurt, and I know that he's already healed, and I know that there are other ways to help out around the castle. But I _feel_ useless, even though everyone keeps telling me I'm not. Even myself." She smiles bitterly.

This is...more complicated than I expected...

Felicia sighs and shakes her head. "Sorry for snapping at you just now. And for yesterday, too. That was unacceptable of me."

"That's fine," I say. "You don't need to apologize." Flora nods her agreement.

We're all quiet for a while. Flora pats out the hem of her dress. Felicia locks her fingers together and fidgets, looking down. I can't see her expression.

Eventually, Felicia shakes her head and takes a deep breath. She puts on a brave face and looks up at us, nodding for her own benefit. "I think I heard you saying you didn't have much time to look for me. Are you busy with something? Can I help? I...I think I need to just stay busy right now. That's why I was doing laundry."

Although it's uncomfortable to admit it, there really isn't anything I can say or do for Felicia. She completely understands her problem and even explained it to us in a coherent fashion. That alone disproves her feelings that she's useless-the younger Felicia could never have managed that. It could take hours of us consoling her before she would fully calm down.

She's come a long way from the clumsy crybaby she used to be.

And she knows it. She's just having trouble convincing herself of the fact.

I smile. "Actually, it's something _only_ you can help with. I will accept no substitute!" I leap up and raise my fist into the air.

Flora giggles. "Come on, sister. You know how stubborn he is."

Felicia's confused face finally turns into a smile. A true, warm smile-not the sad, bitter thing she wore earlier. She hops off her bed and mimics my pose. "Team Frozen Dragon is back together!"

* * *

Team Frozen Dragon...I certainly didn't expect I'd be bringing up those memories today. It was our nickname for our daydreamed secret society that the three of us made as kids. We practiced fighting evil wizards, saving princesses, exploring dungeons...all the common things for Nohrian children.

The nickname became disturbingly literal once I entered adolescence. When it was undeniably apparent that I had abnormal abilities, we sort of gave up on the whole thing to save me the disgrace of becoming our mascot. Still, I can't help but look back fondly on the memories. Plus, it cheered up Felicia, so there's that.

"So, how exactly are we going to go about this?" asks Felicia. The three of us met up with Silas and Azura at the northern gate. Silas had already gathered all the materials we would need for testing, as well as some water and jerky if we got hungry. Taking the dragon's share of the bags to carry myself, we left to walk down the sandy path to the beach. Our destination is a shoal cave that will offer total protection from any unwanted attention and should make for a suitable training spot. Felicia and Flora walk on either side of me, with Silas and Azura a few paces ahead of us.

"We'll start off with simple transformations. I don't expect any problems to arise from that. After that, we'll test reflexes, agility, coordination, eyesight...things like that," I say.

"As long as everything checks out, we'll have another practice match," Silas says.

"And as long as _that_ doesn't cause any problems, we will finish by testing Corrin in a complete dragon transformation," Flora finishes.

"Wow," Felicia says. "We're going to be pretty busy then."

"Hopefully," I say. "Say, Felicia, did you eat breakfast this morning?"

"Huh? Yes, why?"

"Oh, just checking that you're still you. If you hadn't, I might have been concerned."

We continue to chat and banter as we walk to the shore. Azura hums an unfamiliar tune-a new song, maybe. It doesn't take long to get there, a few minutes at most. Once we arrive, I take off my shoes and walk barefoot as the waves gently flood onto the beach. The summer water feels warm and pleasant.

"Perhaps we should convert the castle into a vacation spot once this is all over," Azura says, coming up next to me.

"I could see that, actually," says Silas. "But, does the core's power reach this far?"

"That's a good question...I suppose I'll add it to the list of tests for Leo," I answer.

A few more minutes of walking and we reach our destination. We drop our bags and equipment at the mouth of the cave. Flora and Silas fetch a few things out of their satchels and come to stand next to me in the center.

"Alright then, simple stuff first," I say. I focus power into my hand, and...

It transforms just fine.

I turn my silver scaled hand over, carefully inspecting it all around. "It still feels a little warm, but it's less than it was yesterday." I make a fist, then stretch out my fingers. Nothing abnormal. I focus further power into my hand and turn my fingers into talons. I swipe at the air a few times. "Feels alright."

"Nothing unexpected, then." Flora walks over and hands me a rock. I take it, and toss it to my other hand to get a feel for its weight. Then, I throw it towards the ocean-it manages to skip four times before plopping into the waves. "And that was with my normal hand!" I boast proudly.

"That's not something to be that proud of," Silas frowns.

"Nor is it what that rock was for," Flora says.

"Thankfully, we have no shortage of training rocks!" Felicia beams and tosses me another one.

The trio puts me through a variety of tests to look for any oddities. I smashed rocks with armored fists, ran up and down the beach as fast as I could...they even had me juggle at one point. I only managed two rocks, though...I think Flora snuck that one into the regimen for her own amusement.

Satisfied that my basic physical abilities were normal, Silas and I sparred with wooden practice swords again. This duel was considerably more relaxed than the first one, partly because I had to pay so much attention to my mental state to scan for anything draconic. The first round was a long one that ended in my loss when Silas tripped me with some clever leg movements. I won the second and third rounds for the overall win, however.

"I know I had only heard about your incident an hour ago," Felicia says as I help Silas to his feet. "But you seem totally normal to me."

"That reassures me more than you know. It's just that we've never experienced how uncontrolled transformations and a full dragon form mix. I'm a little nervous of the possibility that I might instantly berserk."

"I'm sure you will be fine," Azura says confidently.

"Here goes nothing." I loosen my muscles, feeling the power coursing through my entire body-just waiting to be activated.

I reach out and give it a spark...

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the castle...

With Prince Takumi gone on a mission, and my responsibilities at the forge done early, I find myself with some unanticipated free time. As I ponder how to spend it, I idly brush out my clothes with my hand when I feel something unusual. I look down and get a mild shock when I see that my clothes have ripped along the left arm.

"Well, I guess that solves that dilemma," I mutter, blowing an errant strand of blue hair out of my face. I walk towards the women's barracks. The castle is fairly quiet today. Most of the activity lately has been concentrated in the laboratories and the war room, both of which have been bustling with people coming in and out all day. On the way back to my room, I pass the training grounds, where several Hoshidan rookies are practicing their katana swings.

I spot my friend Hana there as well, dueling an invisible opponent. I offer a greeting, but she didn't notice me. Not exactly surprising. I really ought to try getting Hana to train with Prince Takumi. He really needs someone to stroke his competitive side in order to get him to take most training seriously, and I can't think of a more competitive person than Hana. Then again, what could an archer and a swordswoman practice together?

My thoughts are interrupted when the doors to the women's barracks violently swing out. A brown haired man in a monk's attire-Azama, the retainer of Princess Hinoka-falls out flat onto his face. A furious, red haired woman with twin ponytails appears in the doorway.

"And _stay_ out you creep! What the hell do you think you were doing in the _women's_ barracks?" she shouts.

"Oof-my, my, the women of Nohr certainly are much more violent than their fairer counterparts..." he mumbles.

"Get out!" Selena rushes forward, preparing to kick Azama in his backside. He nimbly rolls out of the way and scrambles to his feet, however.

"My, my, it was all a simple misunderstanding! I merely forgot which barracks I was lodged in!"

Selena shouts in frustration and throws a rock at him. He runs away, laughing.

"Ugh! Can you _believe_ that?" she complains to no one in particular. Then, noticing me, she steps over, still obviously upset. "Seriously, did you believe that?"

"From what I've heard..." I think about the gossip I've heard about the callous man. Even the Princess herself has voiced her complaints about him to me, once. "Honestly, that might have been true. Apparently, he spends most of his time sleeping in trees and bushes and whatnot."

She moans. "I suppose it was my own fault. Here I was, thinking this castle might actually be pretty great, but no nice things for Selena! It's got peeping toms in it!"

I blink. "He was peeping on you?" I never held the man in especially high regard, but I didn't think he would stoop _that_ low.

She huffs. "Well, he better have learned his lesson. Next time, I'll use my sword instead of my foot!"

I smirk. "I'll back you up. We'll say it was self-defense."

Her anger fades-that made her smile. "Thanks." Then she blinks, looking as if she's forgotten something. "Hey, I don't think we've ever properly introduced ourselves. I'm Selena, Selena Retter." She offers her hand, which I take.

"Oboro Sato. Nice to meet you," I say. Then, I notice something about her that seems off..."Say, do you dye your hair?"

She looks at me vacantly before she blushes furiously. She reaches out and grabs my hand, pulling me inside. "Inside, quick!"

"W-what? Where are we going? Why are you dragging me!?" She hurries me along into one of the rooms on the side of the main hallway. Thankfully it isn't far, because she's kind of hurting my wrist with how hard she's pulling...

She closes and locks the door behind me before she lets go of my hand, which I rub gingerly. "Mind telling me what's going on?" Selena is still blushing intensely, looking down from embarrassment.

"I can't believe I forgot..." she moans. She looks up at me suddenly. "You can't tell _anyone_ about this, alright? It's a secret!"

That's it? She's embarrassed she dyes her hair?

"Um...okay? Why is that so important to you?"

"I just like the color red, okay?! It looks good on me, is all! I don't need a reason!" Wow. She's taking this way too seriously.

"Alright, fine. Your secret is safe with me," I concede. That seems to placate her, as she sighs in relief. I rub my chin as I inspect her closer.

"W-what?" she asks nervously.

"You're right," I say. "Red does look good on you. It goes well with your outfit, too."

She seems surprised. "Oh. Um...thank you." She rubs the back of her head. "Sorry if I... overreacted. I know it seems silly, but it really is important to me."

"If you don't mind me asking...what is your natural hair color?"

She swallows nervously. "Ah...well...it's white. Silvery-white." She lets out another breath. "I get it from my father."

As I look closer, I can see that some of her hairs are indeed silvery-white. She must have been interrupted by Azama when she was dyeing her hair. "I think it's a beautiful color. Do you not like it?"

"Well, no, I do...but...it's complicated. I'm sorry, I don't really want to elaborate."

What an odd woman. I didn't know much of anything about her before today other than that she was a retainer to Nohr's Prince Xander. Although, I have heard Hinata praise her skill with a sword before.

"You don't need to apologize, it's your business. I'm sorry if I was pushy."

She waves me off. "It's fine, really."

"Would you like me to help you finish? It'll be harder to correct a partial dyeing on your own."

She blinks. "You'd help me?"

"Sure. I don't have any tasks at the moment."

Selena seems unsure, but eventually nods and sits down on her room's chair, turning around so I have access to her head. "You know, I heard you have a seriously big grudge against Nohrians. Why would you offer to help fix one's hair?"

I frown, although she can't see it. "I'm working really hard on fixing that. Besides, I can't quite put my finger on it, but you really don't seem like a Nohrian to me."

She laughs nervously. "You don't say..."

* * *

We could all immediately tell that something had gone wrong. The usual soft blue light of Corrin's transformation was absent-an unfamiliar hue of silver enveloped him, and he vanished into the bright light. Corrin's maids and his knight had to shield their eyes from the light. Moments later, the light grew and expanded into the rough shape of a dragon, and he became corporeal once again.

Corrin's full dragon form is nearly featureless. It lacks eyes, ears, a mouth...there is nothing on his body to convey emotion of any sort. To be honest, it feels nearly...incomplete. This form could not have possibly been intended to serve as any creature's primary state of being. How could it eat? How could it communicate? How could it reproduce, with no genitalia to speak of?

This being...it does not feel like Corrin. It feels like a shell-a tool Corrin is in control of. Or perhaps not...

One of Corrin's long, deer like legs crumples, and he falls forward. Even though he has no means of expressing himself, I can tell he is already exhausted and in pain.

 _Quiet, Azura! This is no time to gawk. Something has gone wrong, and you must sing._ I borrow the power from my pendant, adding magical tone to my voice as I sing.

 _~You are the ocean's gray waves~_

Corrin's dragon reacts poorly, however. It gets back up on its legs and steps away from me as I calmly approach.

"Lady Azura! Stay back!" Silas shouts, moving forward to block me. Wisely choosing not to draw his sword, he knows full well to keep Corrin as calm as possible. We must convince him that we are not threats.

I stop moving, but do not stop singing. Corrin was far worse back in Shirasagi, and nearly as bad when we were alone in Terocio. Both times, he managed to contain himself. I am not afraid.

Corrin's dragon thrashes about wildly before rearing back on two legs and stomping down with tremendous force.

I had forgotten the raw _power_ that this form exudes.

Felicia and Flora decide not to rely solely on my song. They step forward and unleash a concentrated blizzard directly onto Corrin. He thrashes around some more before finally going still and curling up into a ball. Unlike his hybrid form, dragon Corrin is far too big and powerful to freeze solid. However, due to his cold blooded body, Felicia and Flora learned long ago that his body forces itself to revert back to human form to prevent him from freezing to death in the face of sudden drops in temperature.

Sure enough, after a few seconds, his body is enveloped in a silver light, and he morphs back into a human. My heart can't help but tremble at the sight. He looks scared out of his mind, curled into the fetal position and shivering badly. Felicia and Flora approach him and wrap him in blankets.

"So loud," he says, before passing into unconsciousness.

* * *

"Are you sure you're okay?" Felicia asks me again. I was only unconscious for a minute or so before I woke up, body shivering and head ringing. The others propped me up against the shoal cave's wall and are all standing around me, looking tremendously worried.

"Y-yes, Felicia. I-it's stopped now," I tell her, clutching the blankets closer to my chest.

She frowns, clearly unsatisfied. "What was that? Can you remember?"

I don't answer, waiting a few minutes for my body temperature to rise. I've always hated this part of my fits the most. The helplessness, the confusion...the all-encompassing cold. Eventually, I stop shivering.

"I can only remember sounds," I say. "It was like...bees, flying inside my head. It was...very loud, but not so loud that I couldn't hear the talking."

"Talking? Was it our voices?" asks Flora.

I shake my head. "It was not. It was like...the bees were in one ear and this voice was in the other. I don't know who, or what, it was. And it wasn't any language I recognized."

Azura cocks her head. "But you could tell it was speech?"

Silas scratches his face. "Do you remember what it sounded like?" he asks.

I pause, trying to remember. "What I felt...it didn't feel explicitly hostile, I think...it was just... so overwhelming...it sounded something like...'mor balat. Jhar sonen...ananso?' I don't know. I think that was it."

"Was that all it said?" asks Felicia.

"I'm sorry. I can't remember."

"You don't need to apologize. It looked like you were in pain," says Flora. "And Lady Azura's song seemed only to aggravate you."

"That's true," Azura says. "Although, that's not very surprising. Every time I have used it on him, he initially recoiled from me."

"Oh!" gasps Flora. "We nearly forgot!" She bends over and reaches for my face, leaning in close to examine me. I don't move as Flora's blue eyes scan mine. She feels my face and checks my ears. "Nothing abnormal," she sighs, standing back up.

"That's good," I say weakly. My eyelids feel heavy.

Flora clasps her hands together. "We are done for the day. I think it would be best that we get Prince Corrin back to the castle so he can recover from this ordeal. Silas, Felicia, please help him to his feet. Lady Azura, I believe that we should go back ahead of them, so we may arrange that as few people as possible will see their return."

"Very well," Azura says, composed as ever. She turns to me before she leaves the cave. "Please, be well, Corrin. Remember that you may always lean on us." She smiles warmly at me, which I try to return.

Felicia and Silas step forward and each take a side of my body, hoisting me up. My limbs are shaky, and I cannot stand up without their help. "I've never been this weak after turning back before," I cough. "Whatever that was really did a number on me..."

"Don't try and think about it," Silas says, helping me awkwardly walk towards the cave's mouth.

"Okay," I whisper. Then I fall into silent blackness once again.

* * *

Felicia and Silas had to basically carry me back up the hill. I can only vaguely recall being walked back up the slope to the castle and hearing the distant sounds of Azura's singing-she told me later that she did that on purpose to draw attention away from the gates. They took me to my quarters where I slept for nearly five hours. As I stretch out of my bed, I offer a silent prayer of thanks. I would have expected ominous dreams or visions to haunt me after that experience earlier, but my sleep was mercifully quiet.

My window is open, and I can feel the cooler evening air on my skin. The sun is just starting to creep below the horizon. Someone must have undressed me while I was asleep-my shirt is neatly folded on top of a chair. It looks like they already cleaned it, too. As I put my clothes back on, I hear a knock at the door; I guess someone must have heard me moving around.

"Come in," I shout at them. My voice feels a little hoarse. As my guest enters, I spot a glass of water on my table and move in for it.

"Corrin! Are you-" I don't even need to turn around to know who that energy belongs to. Elise cuts herself off and glues her feet to the floor, remembering that it is bad manners to tackle-hug someone who just came out of unconsciousness. She clears her throat and puts her hands together in a very serious pose. "How are you? Are you feeling better?" she asks, much more quietly this time.

"So, this is the price I have to pay for a more reserved Elise? Hmm, it might be worth it..." I tease.

She sticks her tongue out at me, ladylike poise gone in an instant. "Well enough! Brace yourself!"

"Elise, wait, no!"

Too late. She charges and leaps at me, clinging onto my back like a baby monkey.

"Agh! What would you do if I wasn't better, huh?!"

She lets go of me and twirls around. "Well, I already knew you were better."

"Oh yeah? How's that?"

She laughs. "Cause I'm the one that healed you, silly!"

"Healed me? How did I get hurt?"

She shakes her head and takes a seat onto my bed, her swinging legs barely able to reach the floor. "Well, you weren't hurt. Not really. They said you were just suuuper exhausted, so I came by and gave you some energy!" I let out a sigh of relief. She had me worried for a moment there. I'm glad I managed not to injure myself in my semi-conscious state. I suppose I'll need to thank Felicia and Silas for that. Azura and Flora, too.

I shake my head. I have more pressing concerns. "So, anything happen while I was out?"

"Um..." she leans back in contemplation. "Oh, yeah!" She leans forward and hops off my bed, twirling to face me. "Nyx is outside! She said she just finished her work and needs to see you as soon as possible. Should I go get her?" Elise turns and starts heading out before I can answer.

"Wait!" She turns around, surprised. "Hold on. Before you go, there's something I need to talk to you about.

"O-okay," She blinks. "What's up?"

"About yesterday..." I start.

Elise puts her hands behind her back, turning away awkwardly. "...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so pushy. I know why you don't want to play again. I was wrong." She quickly bows in apology.

I walk over and pat her head. She looks up, startled. "No, I've been thinking about it...I think you were right, albeit for the wrong reason." She stands upright again and I sigh. "And combined with...what's been happening lately, it's more important than ever that I remain focused. And I think you were right, that music helps with that."

She quivers with anticipation. "Do you mean...?"

I smile and pat her head again. "Yeah. I'll play with you again. Go tell Flora," I say.

She laughs and hugs me tightly. "Yeah!" She lets go and starts bouncing around with such enthusiasm that I start to wonder if she actually transferred some of her energy to me at all. "Aww, man! This is going to be great!" She laughs again before bounding out of my room. I laugh to myself at her antics.

"Music again, huh..." I mutter to myself. I'm looking forward to it, too. It's been a long time...

Another knock at the door interrupts me before I can start reminiscing. "Come in."

Nyx walks in. Unlike the last time I saw her, she has opted for more casual clothes over her sorcerer's outfit. Still black, of course.

"It is good to see that you are healthy again, Prince Corrin." She bows lightly after the door shuts. I'll never quite get used to having such a serious looking 'child' clad in all black bow to me.

"Good evening, Nyx. How are you?" She looks exhausted. The bags under her eyes are a sure sign that she hasn't slept in some time.

She lets out an uncharacteristically big smile-you could even call it a wry grin. "I honestly think that I may never have been better."

"Elise said you had something very important to tell me. I take it you must have had a big breakthrough?"

She laughs softly. "Indeed. This information may change the tide of the war..."

* * *

Everyone that I have assembled in the war room looks very intrigued to learn what my announcement is going to be. My own retainers, Azura, and all the royals from both kingdoms (except for Takumi and Ryoma, who are both absent on other missions) are assembled around the room's central, round table. A few of their key military officials are present as well. The gathered people quietly chat and whisper among themselves as we wait. Leo and Nyx stand at either side of me-I'm not going to be the only one talking tonight. I clear my throat as Elise, the final member to arrive, bounds through the door. "Alright, that's everyone. I'm going to begin."

I step back a bit from the table. Everyone else, save Leo and Nyx, sits down and gives me their attention. "Now, I know that surprise meetings in the war room are almost exclusively bad news. Thankfully, that isn't the case today." I smile. I can't wait to see everyone's reactions to Nyx and Leo's breakthroughs. "Here's the breakdown: we now understand the mechanics behind the enemy's invisibility powers and we know how to counteract them."

The room quickly breaks out into cheers and applause. Even Xander smiles proudly for Leo.

"You certainly figured that out quickly," says Hinoka. "I only just heard about that!"

Nyx clears her throat and steps forward. "It was an extremely challenging problem until I began to collaborate with Prince Leo's tests on the castle core. As it turns out, both of our problems shared related elements."

Leo begins to speak as well. "Basically, the spell that binds Anankos' dead soldiers has a side effect when combined with a whirlpool. The 'invisibility effect' is present in all wights that have recently arrived in our world. The effect was never completely effective-the wights were not perfectly invisible, and visible 'ghostly flames' could give away their position. However, that changed recently..." Leo gestures to Nyx, who nods.

"Recall that we recently recovered the body of an undead _mage_ ," she says. "This was traditionally understood as impossible for necromancy to accomplish. The fact that our enemy has figured out how to achieve this is very disconcerting." Nyx shakes her head. "Regardless, by experimenting with the corpse of this mage and the use of whirlpools, we have found that Anankos' mages _amplify_ the invisibility side effect-both to themselves and any soldier wights that come with them in their group."

"We will skip over the arcane complexities of the matter," Nyx continues. "Simply put, by witnessing this ability firsthand, I have identified flaws in the magic. I have already devised two new spells that will counteract the invisibility effect."

Cheers and praise fill the room again. Nyx and Leo smile proudly.

"What are these spells you have devised?" asks Xander.

"I devised the first spell from our castle's protective field. It is meant to be cast and maintained over a large area. Any wight that enters the area of effect while invisibile will have their stealth dispelled. However, the spell requires both a magical focus and a significant amount of magical energy to keep up. That means it will require the attention of several mages if it is to be maintained around the clock-only large cities will be able to efficiently use this spell."

"And yes, we've already modified our castle's barrier to include the effect," Leo adds.

At the far end of the table, Sakura shyly raises her hand, probably at the prodding of Elise. Leo notices and points to her. "Um...what does the second spell do?" she asks.

"The second spell is akin to a flare. It is fired into the air from a single caster. As it slowly floats back down to the ground, it will both illuminate the area and provide the same dispelling effect. It is a relatively simple spell to learn, and costs far less energy to cast. However, it only lasts a few minutes and covers a much smaller area," answers Leo.

"I-I see...that's amazing. You two are really incredible to have figured that out so fast!" Sakura says, blushing.

"Ah...um, thank you..." Leo stammers.

Wow, what? Leo does _not_ stammer. What's gotten into him?

I put my questions out of my mind and speak up. "It's certainly an impressive feat. If we're going to win, understanding the enemy will be just as important as beating them in the field." Everyone seated gives a chorus of agreement. "There's one more thing, however, and it's even more good news. We can now definitively say that Anankos can _not_ send wights directly into our castle. Nyx and Leo learned that during their tests when they tried to send our captive wight to the castle via a whirlpool. It seems the ancient builders of the castle built some kind of countermeasure into the core-the wight was disintegrated the moment it was thrown into the whirlpool."

"That is a tremendous relief," Camilla sighs.

"Oh!" Elise cries. "About that. Do we know why they disintegrate?"

I nod. "Basically, the spell that animates them is just insanely powerful. When the wights take too much damage, their bodies become unable to contain the spell. They overload with power and their bodies are incinerated nearly instantly."

I step forward and place my hands onto the table. "We're peeling back his mysteries, one by one. We've proven that he exists, we've proven that we can stop his soldiers. We've saved thousands of lives by intervening and defending villages and cities from his attacks-but it won't be enough." I push off the table and start slowly pacing back and forth. I make a deliberate effort to look everyone assembled in the eye.

"We will never win this war by continuing to just react to everything Anankos does. It's time we took the fight to him."

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Hinoka stands up and pumps her fist into the air. "When do we start?"

"Tomorrow," I tell her.

She blinks. "What? Really?"

"Yes, really. Tomorrow will be our first proper expedition into Valla. Our objective is to scout the area and establish a foothold if possible. We've never gone to Valla from the castle...if the rules are the same as the other times we've gone, every body of water in this world leads to a different body of water in Valla. So it's very likely we'll end up somewhere we've never been."

Draconic malfunctions be damned. We can't pass up the opportunity to attack Valla now. I'll fight in human form until I'm confident in my stability.

"Anankos is running out of time! Together, we _will_ vanquish him!"

Defiant cries ring out as everyone steels their resolve. Tomorrow's mission could be the toughest battle we've faced yet. But we won't fail.

We can't afford to.

A/N: Well, this has been quite a fun experience. I hope you liked reading this as least as much as I did writing it.

As I said at the beginning, this was my first ever time writing something like this.

This 'story' was really intended to be a test of my ability to write various types of scenes and convey different emotions. That's why I had a bit of everything in this: some romance, some humor, a villainous monologue, a heroic speech, a fight scene, etc.

These ideas are part of a larger picture I had drafted up for a reworking of Fates' story. It is probable that you may see these chapters again one day as part of a true, fully-realized story. Although, that would be a _massive_ undertaking. These four chapters took me over twenty hours to write and it scares me a little when I think of how long it would take to write the entire thing. If you liked this, please, please, _please_ leave a review or a PM. I'm really starving for feedback over here.

Shoutout to Apocryphal One for giving me support and advice throughout. Reading the very interesting _Invisible Princess_ was one of the sparks that ignited my drive to really get to writing and I recommend reading it if you have not already.

Future plans: expect to see more from me. I've already got some one-shots for XCOM, Pokemon, RuneScape, and more Fire Emblem stuff lined up. These will likely be pretty short, around 5k words.

That's all for now!


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